


Michelle

by M_Mary93



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Broken, Cast - Freeform, Comfort, Crutches, Hurt, Hurt Jack, Hurt!Jack, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Dalton Whump, Jack Whump, Love, Memorial Day, PTSD, Romance, fracture, hurt Jack Dalton
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-09 08:48:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 42,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11101095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_Mary93/pseuds/M_Mary93
Summary: Jack breaks his leg a few weeks before memorial day. Then he meets Michelle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so… I missed Memorial day by a few days. But still felt like this was okay to post.**

“Come on Ri, it’s not that high…” Jack coaxed as he tried to get Riley to jump down a small ledge. “Time is of the essence, if I have to remind you…”

“Would you just shut up, please!” Riley barked back as she stood on the edge, completely rigid.

“I didn’t know you were scared of heights…”

“Neither did I two minutes ago!”

“Okay, but we’ve GOT TO GO!”

“I- I can’t…” Riley stuttered, clenching her hands into fists.

“Okay, if I go first and catch you… Would that work?”

Riley shrugged, then nodded.

“Okay, good. When I get down there, sit down on the edge and just slide down into my hands. How does that plan sound to you?”

“Great.”

Jack smiled and nudged Riley’s shoulder, then he stepped back to give himself some momentum and let the tuck-and-roll motion go smoother.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It felt like someone took Louisville slugger to a spot three inches above his left ankle, on second thought, it felt like Babe Ruth himself had stood up from the dead, re-visited his glory days and batted one of his best ever power hits.

The planned tuck and roll ended up with him curled up on his side, clutching his left ankle. Every cussword known to man rolled off his tongue, and a few improvised ones too for good measure.

30 seconds later he managed to breathe through the worst brunt of the pain. He wasn’t able to uncurl from the way he was wrapped in on himself.

“Don’t think that you can fool me into jumping down there. That’s not how it works!”

“I’m not trying to fool you!” Jack actually managed to speak out in a full sentence. “Think I broke my leg…”

“You’re kidding right?” Riley hoped.

The painful moan Jack couldn’t hold back answered her question for him.

“How bad is it?” Riley asked from her placement up on the ledge. It wasn’t all that high. If Jack had been able to stand up and reach for the plateau he had just jumped from his hands would just fall a foot short of the top.

Jack cussed another string, hard enough words to make Riley reconsider her question all together.

“Stupid question, don’t need to answer.” Riley sighed, “There is no other way down from here, damn it.”

After finally concluding what they both already knew, Riley rolled over to her stomach and edged over the edge. She managed to lower herself until she was dangling from her hands, but her feet were still about a yard off the ground. She let go with her left hand and turned around as much as anatomy would let her. Then she dropped and landed rock steady.

He didn’t flinch when when Riley placed her hand on his shoulder. But her words sent a slight shiver through his soul.

“Jack, I have to take a look at your leg. Do you want me to cut up the lacing or to untie it?”

“Cut it.” Easy decision. He had been through this once or twice before. He had probably broken a leg (or both) about 20-25 times all in all. Counting everything from childhood clumsiness, teenage idiocy to missions going less than stellar. “Hey, Ri…”

“Yeah...?”

“When we get home from this…” Jack started, but had to pause to fight a grimace that fluttered across his face, “When we get home, let’s try to get Matty to agree never to use the phrase ‘easy mission’ ever again… Huh?”

Riley paused from slitting open the boot, smiling despite the situation.

“Yeah, let’s ban that phrase from Phoenix lingo…” Riley agreed, “Except from when we’re talking about missions we’ve already been through. History you know.”

“Yeah, let the missions become easy once they’re done and over with….” Jack grimaced.

“Ow, that’s definitely broken.” Riley hissed in sympathy.

“Told you so!” Jack gritted out, “It isn’t open, is it?”

“No. Thankfully not.” Riley informed. “But I think the bone splintered a bit. I think one or two of those pieces are pressing against the skin. And your foot is poking outward…”

“Good thing the crew followed Mac, huh?”

Riley nodded, “I need to splint this in some way. We’re still too far away from the car for you to skip all the way on one leg.”

Jack nodded in agreement as he propped himself up on his elbows.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“How does that feel?”

“Hurts just as much as you would expect…” Jack answered, scrounging up his nose.

“Well, since we’re in a part of the world where the vegetation is either knee height, or don’t offer any support at all… You’re going to have to rely on me as a crutch.”

Jack nodded.

“Ready to get going?” she asked, “We’re losing daylight…”

It wasn’t without struggle that Riley helped Jack up. But Riley managed to half-lift Jack who was much taller and heavier than her.

It didn’t take more than a hundred yards before they figured out that their current way of handling things wasn’t working out.

“Okay, stand there for a second…” Riley instructed, stopping Jack.

“Why?”

“Just do it.” Riley said with a hand pressed against Jack’s chest to steady him. Then when she knew he had his footing, she turned her back to him, squaring off her frame and spreading her arms slightly. “Jump on…”

“I’ll crush you!”

“I have been a part of this team for a couple of years now. What do you think I do when I am in the gym?”

“Work out…?”

“Yup, and I squat more than you weigh…” Riley deadpanned. “Hop on.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Well, that’s a sight I never expected to see…” Mac chuckled as Riley and Jack rounded a boulder and came into view. Then he turned a little more serious before he asked, “Has something happened?”

“Broke my leg…” Jack hissed, “A mile or so back.”

“is it bad?”

“I don’t know, but crutches will be mandatory for the next couple of weeks.” Jack reasoned.

Mac nodded and gave the splint a once over once, “Good job on the splint Riley. Does it feel like your leg is held in place Jack?”

“Feels like it does its job nicely.” Jack nodded. “But I’m ready to get looked at by a doctor right about now. Maybe get shot up with some feel-good-juice.”

“We’ve got a half a mile left to the extraction point.” Riley informed as she wiped off her brow. “Let’s get going…”

Just as Riley was about to get ready to have Jack ride piggy-back again, Mac spoke up. “I’ll take care of Jack. You’ve done more than your part already.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple of weeks later.

Jack felt a bit strange as he dressed up in his nicest uniform, with all of his military medals decorating his chest. His left leg was still in a cast from his knee down. And he still needed the crutches, he wasn’t allowed to bear weight on the leg yet. It had been a complicated fracture, and had required a plate and a bunch of screws.

He shuffled backward to be able to look at himself in the mirror. Full-figure. Uniform and crutches. His eyes were drawn to the fiberglass covered leg. Could he wear this today? Could he? Would it steal away from the focus of the day? This day was for guys like Tommy and Mike and girls like Evy. Those who hadn’t come back.

After more than 10 minutes in front of the mirror he decided that he had to wear the uniform wither way. He was the one elected to hold a speech, he couldn’t do that in jeans and a dirty t-shirt. He would have to wear his uniform.

There was a knock on the door, Jack knew who it was without any other hints. He hobbled over to the motel door, and unlocked it. Mac stood there dressed sharply in a matching uniform, just a couple of ranks beneath Jack’s.

“Ready to go?” he asked, holding up the keys to the rental they had while they were in Texas.

“I look like a fraud…”

“Why would you say that?” Mac furrowed his brows, tilting his head.

“It’s memorial day, I’m elected to speak on their behalf, and I hobble around on crutches. I didn’t even get hurt as a soldier!”

“Jack…”

“I- I… I…”

“Jack, you are a soldier. One who have done far more for this country and this world than most of us. Stuff that would make you a legend if it wasn’t classified. You might not dress up in your khakis for missions anymore, but you’re still a soldier. Just a different and more skilled branch. We can call you a Phoenix-soldier. You did get injured as a soldier…”

Jack said nothing.

“Come on, let’s go…” Mac smiled, “Need me to carry anything?”

“Okay, no… I’ve got everything on me…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle watched as a handsome soldier with a chest full of medals hobbled up the stairs.

The man paused at top of the stage, before he crutched over to the chairs set out there. He moved slowly and kept his eyes to the ground, like he was reading something. He stopped at the fourth chair, placed his crutches in his left hand and lowered himself onto the seat.

Michelle instantly felt curious about the soldier’s history. Who was he? What had he done? What had happened to his leg?

She saw him carefully place his foot on the floor, and wondered if the man should have a second chair to elevate his injured leg on.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

His heart was pounding in his chest, and his leg was throbbing steadily inside the cast. His mouth ran dry and his hands went clammy. It was like some kind of stage-fright served up with a side order of aching left leg.

He carefully slid the cast along the stage floor, until he had his foot parallel with the floor. The throbbing didn’t ease up, if anything it just kicked it up a notch. He hooked his right leg behind the cast and eased his injured leg forward. He let out an involuntary hiss as the three week old injury buzzed with pain.

_I can take three hours of this. Three hours is nothing. At least nothing compared to being tortured by terrorists in the middle east, or landing a plane with no wings and no engines._

He hadn’t even noticed that the man assigned to the seat beside him had parked his ass on the chair. Not before he spoke.

“Leg bothering ya?” the question came in a thick Texan accent, and the man’s voice was about as deep as the deepest oceans.

Jack flashed a short apologetic smile.

“A little…” he admitted as he blushed, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be a wimp about it…”

“Don’t you worry son. There is no shame in complaining about anything that deserves a cast. It hurts, those of us who have been through it knows that. Was it a bad fracture?”

“Well, I’ve got a six inch metal plate in my leg, and more screws than I’ve got fingers on my hands…”

“Sounds awful…” the other man grimaced, “When did this happen?”

“About three weeks ago. I’ve got at least two more weeks with this itchy cast.”

“They weren’t able to immobilize the leg well enough with the hardware?”

Jack grinned shortly, “They decided, given my history, that it would be best to go all belt and suspenders on this…”

“Okay?”

“Let’s just say that there have been a few instances where doctors had to break up poorly healed injuries. Better safe than sorry I guess…”

The other man didn’t say anything for a few seconds, he just looked at Jack’s cast.

“Should I find something for you to prop your leg up on? It must be better to have it elevated…”

“Thank you, but it really isn’t necessary.” Jack smirked, in reality he could really use an upside down bucket or a chair to rest his leg on.

“You sure?” We’re going to be here for a while you know….”

Jack nodded, “Three hours, I know…”

“Just give me a hint if you need anything.”

“Thanks, but all I really need is for those two painkillers I took 5-10 minutes ago to kick in.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

By the time he was supposed to speak on behalf of his fallen brothers and sisters, his leg had stopped hurting immensely.

He hobbled over to the microphones, clearing his throat on his way over.

He stopped in front of the mics and propped his crutches against the pulpit. Then he gripped the surface to steady himself.

“Hello. My name is Jack Dalton. I… Errr… I… I used to be a Colonel with the US Army, and I’m not very good with speeches, I hope you can forgive me for that later. There’s this country song where one of the lines say ‘All gave some, some gave all’. I only gave some, but I served alongside guys and gals who gave all and never came back from war. I’ve seen the horrors of war up close and personal. I enlisted as soon as I could, straight out of high school in ’85. And I’ve seen most of the action you’ve seen on the television from the front line.  Let me tell you a little story of the first time I really felt war on my own body, it was in Desert Storm. It was February 4th, the day after my 24th birthday. I had seen war a couple of times by then, but what happened then was a new experience for me.”

Jack squeezed his eyes shut, fighting memories that suddenly rushed to the surface.

“February 4th, 1991. My squad and I were driving south, towards our home base over there. The sky was as burning bright, just as blue as the Texas sky on a perfect spring day. I remember Tommy  Evans, some of  you might have known him, he was a Dallas boy. Always had an optimistic grin and dimples that would make him seem at least five years younger than he really was. Good guy, good kid, good hero. We were having this stupid friendly argument about what movie was the best.”

Jack had to wipe away a few tears with his right hand.

“I survived the roadside bomb, three of my team mates weren’t as lucky. Tommy was one of them.”

Jack cleared his voice, hoping that it would hold up until he was done speaking.

“America, some gave all…Today we honor them.”

Jack didn’t spend more time up at the pulpit than necessary. He gathered his crutches and hobbled back to his chair.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The rest of the three hours went by painstakingly slow. And his emotions threatened to get the best of him all of the time. The absolute worst was when Ella’s husband took the floor and told the story of how his wife had been shot in the chest on her 3rd tour overseas. He had met Ella, one brief time. She was a badass woman, the kind you either love or fear. What hurt his soul the most was the three year old who sat on the man’s arm, hiding her face in the nook of her father’s neck, and that that little angel never would see her beautiful and strong mother ever again.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Sit down, sit down….” Mac ushered as he provided a chair for Jack as he hopped down backstage. “How are you holding up?”

“Leg’s fine… Just throbs a little.”

“I’m not talking ‘bout your leg, old man… I’m talking about the top floor, where’s your head at?”

Jack looked down at the ground, then up at Mac again.

“It’s been a day…” he spoke barely above a whisper.

Mac could feel his heart sinking, ‘it’s been a day’ spoke volumes to him about what demons were roaring inside Jack’s mind. It had been their code ever since the fourth time they worked together, way back in the sandbox. Also known as the first time Mac had seen Jack have an episode, reliving one of the major craptastic events war had provided him.

“I know…”

Jack sniffled and closed his eyes, nodding.

“How about we go back to the motel, and put on some Jim Carrey movie or something?”

“I’d rather go empty a dive bar for all of its liquor…” Jack muttered silently.

“We both know alcohol and this mindset…”

“-shouldn’t be mixed, I know…” Jack ran a hand down his face, “But Lord, I need a drink…”

“Water. You need a drink of water…” Mac countered, “I’ve got the car waiting out back, let’s go. Let’s get that leg of yours up, it must be pounding like crazy…”

“Yeah, kinda…” Jack admitted taking a new hold of his crutches. “Mac…”

“Yup…”

“Could you… Could you like…”

“-Stay in your room tonight?”

Jack nodded.

“Sure…” Mac answered with a careful hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I’ll take the couch.”

“Thanks man…”

**Just so you know it, I’m craving Jack whump like crazy.**

**Also, had to exercise my writing muscles. Hope you didn’t get too bored.**

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello lovelies! Just me again. Hope you don’t mind!**

 

It was a quarter past eleven when the bell above the bar door rang, announcing that another customer either came or left. Michelle looked up from her task of wiping glasses dry and was surprised to see the handsome soldier from earlier that day, this time in civilian clothes.

He was even prettier up close, well… Pretty might be the wrong word to use when describing a tough rugged soldier. But in a way, he was pretty. Maybe handsome was the right word, the soldier was more of a Jeffrey Dean Morgan kind of guy than Orlando Bloom. More Kevin Costner and Bruce Willis than Zac Efron and Liam Hemsworth. _(Although with a few more years both Zac and Liam could potentially grow out of their teen-girl idol looks and grow into more mature handsomeness…)_

“Hello stranger…” she chipped with her greatest smile.

The soldier flashed a quick exhausted smile as he made it over to the barstools. “Hello…”

“Now, what can I get ya?” she kept her smile up.

“Two fingers of whatever has the most kick around here…” the soldier drawled as he climbed up on the barstool.

“Well, then you can choose between Jim, Jack and José, or Grandma Ellie’s white lightning…”

“Think it’s a little early for moonshine just yet…” Jack smirked, but he started to like this place already. It looked like one of those places where the sheriff would just look the other way, or possibly take a drink or two himself while on-duty. “Besides, I’ve got a bad history with that… My uncle used to cook…”

“Was he any good?”

“Nah, but it worked well as engine fuel…”

Michelle chuckled, “Well, Grandma Ellie is the best around. But most people who drink from her batch end up crawlin’ home…”

“Well, I’ll probably be crawling by the end of the night either way…” Jack sighed as he took the offered glass into his hands.

“Crutches and alcohol don’t seem like the best idea ever, huh?” Michelle shrugged before holding up three bottles, “So, Jim, Jack or José?”

“Jim Beam. José and I had a falling out about 20 years ago, haven’t talked to each other since. And right now, I don’t know if I like Jack much either…”

“Rough day?”

“Memorial day always is…” the soldier said, leaning on his elbows.

“You a soldier?” Michelle asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“No. Well, yes. Kinda…” he answered. “I used to be, kinda still am…”

Michelle nodded. She needed the man to say his name to her, it would be strange for him if she just assumed it was Jack. It was Jack, wasn’t it?

She poured up some Jim Beam for him before she continued with her plan to make him present himself.

“Well, I usually know everybody in here by name. And they know me, I’m Michelle, Michelle Sawyer…”

“Jack Dalton…” the soldier answered with a tired smile, not the kind of tired that would be fixed by a few extra hours of sleep. No, it was much deeper than that.

“Jack Dalton, nice to meet ya!” she winked, pulling over the stool she had behind the counter. “Mind if I sit with you for a while, it’s kinda empty in here tonight…”

Jack gestured for her to take the other side of the bar. “Might be nice with some company…”

She nodded and sat down, poured herself half a glass of Corona.

“Mind if I ask the story behind your cast?”

“The one on my leg?”

Michelle nodded, “Only if it doesn’t bother you…”

“Nah… Of course not…” Jack answered staring down at the golden liquid in his glass. “I had to jump down a small cliff. Simple, only 10 feet or so… Easy, tuck and roll landing… But one of the bones in my leg broke when I landed, and my… Let’s call her my daughter, cause she basically is, had to carry me the rest of the way to the car…”

“Your daughter…”

“She kinda is, she’s the daughter of a woman I dated almost a decade ago. Riley, the daughter was about 10 at the time we started out. She’s a grown woman now, I work with her. But we’ve found that bond we once had again.” Jack smiled, this time it actually reached his eyes, and it made Michelle happy to see.

“She sounds like a great person…”

“She is.” Jack smiled, another genuine smile. “She’s the best daughter a man could ever have. Her dirt bag dad never realized that.”

“Some fathers never do…” Michelle sighed, remembering her best friend’s father. Total douche bag. “Got any kids of your own?”

Jack shook his head and took a swig of the whiskey. “No… You?”

Michelle shook her head in return. “No, most guys I meet are either married, trouble or both…”

“Never had a gentleman woo you?”

“Maybe once or twice… But it never worked out…”

“Story of my life…” Jack sighed, shaking his head. Then he leaned back and tried to fight a grimace which took control of his facial features.

“You good there, soldier?”

“Yep…” Jack half-growled, “Just the damn leg…”

“We have booths here too… Might be more comfortable for ya. Easier to keep that leg of yours up…”

“Nah, it’s not necessary…” Jack waved her off as soon as his leg stopped its uproar.

“Well, I insist.” Michelle countered. “Hop on over there, I’ll bring your glass and a cushion to rest that leg upon.”

“Really, it’s not necessary…”

“Go on…” she pointed towards the nearest booth, “Besides, the seats are a lot more comfy than these stools anyway…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack had to admit, the couches in the booths were a LOT more comfortable than the old, hard barstools. And the fact that he could have his leg elevated was like a cherry on top.

One more customer had entered the bar in the hour he had been there. Obviously a local, cause he just shouted over to Michelle that he poured himself a glass of Bud Light, and she gave him a thumb’s up in return.

“Mostly locals here?”

She nodded. “Mostly locals and it’s either beer, whiskey or shine they are after. Think the last time I actually mixed a drink was when a bus of college students took a wrong turn last spring right around spring break. That was fun…”

“So, how does a good looking, obviously smart woman like you end up tending a dive bar in the middle of Texas?”

“Well, Rory was my father…”

“And this was his bar, right?”

“Yup, Rory’s bar and music…” she grinned, “My dad retired a couple of years ago, and someone had to keep pouring alcohol to thirsty cowboys…”

“Looks like John Wayne over there handles that just fine…” Jack smirked jabbing a thumb in the latest customers direction.

Michelle chuckled, “Yep, I’m just here to make sure they pay up…”

Jack nodded, “You’ve got to be one tough little gal… Don’t you?”

“Not really, I just threaten to call on my bouncer, and they usually hand over the money fairly quickly after that.”

“So, who have you hired, Patrick Swayze?”

“No, her name is Jordan Holt…”

“A woman?” Jack asked and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Well, most guys don’t…” Michelle grinned back, “But trust me, you wouldn’t like to go up against her, hand to hand.”

“I’ll take your word on that one.” Jack answered and ran a hand through his short hair. “Where’d you find her?”

“Well, we grew up together. She had four older brothers, so she had to learn to fight…”

“They were mean to her?”

“No, not at all!” Michelle said before taking another sip of her beer. “Adam, oldest, did ballet. Mike is gay. Bob is the scrappiest nerd you could ever imagine and Jesse just got beat up a lot… Jordan learned how to fight to defend her older brothers.”

“Wow…”

“And when she got old enough, she joined the Marines. Just because she could…”

“Well, remind me to be a model citizen…” Jack prompted just before he drained the rest of his glass.

Michelle nodded, her eyes falling on the glass. “Can I get you more?”

“Please…” Jack said as he placed the glass down on the table.

“Same stuff?” she asked as she walked across the floor over to the bar.

“Yeah, sounds good.” Jack answered as he studied the bartender’s body and decided that the persons who had made her had done a damn fine job.

She brought the bottle over and poured up the same amount she had done earlier. Then she set the bottle down on the table and sat down on the other couch.

“So, I haven’t seen you around town before. Where are you staying?”

“Super 8 a few blocks from here…” Jack pointed in the general direction the motel would be in. “My colleague fell asleep on my couch… And I couldn’t sleep. Plus I had seen the neon sign advertising cold beer and strong liquor…”

“Well, that’s us…” Michelle sighed, “And live music every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night…”

Jack chuckled, “You make that sound like a bad thing…”

“Well, let’s just say that the locals often tip our musician for not playing…”

“That bad?”

“I bet he couldn’t hit a note if his life depended on it…” Michelle laughed as she shook her head. “He’s awful…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It was a quarter to one, and Michelle had left him alone for a little while. A few more customers had entered, and a few of them wanted coffee and a small bite to eat.

When she returned she had a plate of nachos and cheese in her left hand, which she placed on the table between them.

“Here, have some calories…” she nodded towards the nachos and the steaming hot cheese. “On the house…”

“Thank you…” Jack looked up as he reached out to grab one. He had a good buzz going, and his leg had finally stopped complaining about every beat of his heart. Experience told him he should stop drinking at that point, to go over to water or soda. But he had a certain lack of willpower tonight.

“So, what’s the most awesome thing you’ve ever seen?” Michelle asked, her head resting on her arms on the table, as if they were a pillow.

“Most amazing thing?” Jack drawled, reaching back through his mind. “Well, I can’t tell you the specifics… But… It was one of my tours to the Middle East. We had this new kid joining our team. Looked like he was about twelve. New EOD, joining our team of merry meat heads. Kid was, is, a GENIUS, all capital letters…”

“You’re fond of him, I take it?”

“Yeah, we’re partners in the team I work with now. Smartest kid you’d ever meet. And not obnoxious about it either…”

Michelle chuckled.

“Anyway… We had been climbing down this ravine for a whole day, and had finally reached the village we were ordered to clear. Few minutes after we enter the town, this woman comes running out into the market, yelling out that someone strapped a bomb around her. –Not uncommon.” Jack grimaced.

“Your leg?” Michelle asked in an anxious tone.

“It’s fine…” Jack assured, besides it wasn’t the leg which had caused him to grimace, but a bloody picture dancing in front of his retina. “Mac, the kid, steps forward before I could stop him. Speaks to the woman in the local language. I spent years down there, and I could rattle off a few rehearsed sentences. But the kid? To me he sounded fluent…”

“What happened next?”

“Well, after speaking with the lady for a minute or so, he told us that the men behind it should be in this and that building. I sent two of our guys over for them. And the kid marched over to the woman with the bomb strapped around her. –Again before I could stop him.”

“Difficult guy?”

“Only to keep safe…” Jack sighed, “I swear that kid will give me a heart attack someday soon…”

Jack poured another sip of whiskey into his mouth and concentrated on the burn traveling down his throat.

“To make the story short, two minutes later, the kid had disarmed the bomb and helped me patch up a grace wound I got on my upper arm. After that I yelled at him for about an hour about that being a stupid, reckless, moronic move. I told him not to do idiotic stuff like that again…”

“Let me guess, he didn’t listen?”

“Well, if he did, he’s piss poor at following orders…” Jack answered before he threw back the rest of the contents in his glass.

“Would you change him, if you could?”

Jack thought about it, a few seconds. “No…” he slurred.

“Why not?”

“He’s a genius.” Jack sighed, “Guess he has just as much right to be wild and reckless as I did… But it still bugs me when he puts himself in danger…”

“He’s kinda like a son to you…?” Michelle presumed.

“Either that or a little brother, haven’t really decided on that yet…” Jack smirked. “Excuse me a minute, I need to find the…”

“Restroom? In the back, to the left.”

“Thank you ma’am…”

After just two klutzy steps with the crutches, Michelle figured she at least had to offer her help.

“Could I interest you in a little help to actually get to the toilet?” She paused, studying Jack’s swaying figure, “Like, before you take a nose-dive into the pine floor?”

Jack stopped in his tracks, hopping on his good leg a few times until he once again was in control of his balance.

“Think that might be best…” he shamefully agreed as his cheeks blushed with embarrassment.

“Okay, let’s leave one crutch here, and I’ll act as the other one…”

“You’re not much ta-ller than Ri…” Jack slurred, studying Michelle yet again, “She couldn’t do that…”

“I feel like I have to remind you that I pour drinks for a living… I know how to move 300lbs guys who can’t keep _one_ leg under them… You’re a lot lighter and you can keep balance –more or less- on your right leg…”

Jack grinned, not really knowing why.

“Come on, one arm over my shoulder and I wrap my arm around your waist.” Michelle ordered, Jack did as she told him to. “Now we keep this at your pace.”

“Thanks…”

“No problem…” Michelle chuckled back. _Good lord, good looking guy Jack Dalton even smelled nice!_

**Okay, let’s cut this right here. Maybe I’ll be able to post more later, maybe not… Hope you’re enjoying it so far!**

**BTW: Not easy to find pretty-boy examples for this chapter. Because I only came up with Marvel / DC superhero actors or the cast from Supernatural… And… Let’s face it… I felt like I needed someone with more innocent looks. I failed…**

**  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews, favs and follows! Warms my heart!**

It was nice to make it back to the booth and sit down after a while.

“Hey, Michelle?” he slurred, trying hard to keep her in focus.

“Yeah…”

“Could I get a shot of that shine now?”

“Not too much of it though, might be hard to get yourself back to the motel afterwards…”

Jack nodded lazily, as Michelle headed back to the bar for a Mason jar full of clear liquid.

“I usually have Apple Pie moonshine too, but Travis in the corner had a fun night Saturday…” she shrugged as she poured some of the white lightning into Jack’s glass.

“Damn, that’s a long time ago…”

“Huh?”

“Since I’ve had apple pie, the moonshine kind at least…” Jack shook his head, “But then again, uncles shine… You’d wake up in a field a couple of days later, not really remembering where you were, what you’d done or how you got there…”

“Sounds… Sounds like something you shouldn’t drink…”

Jack nodded. “I decided on that after celebrating a rodeo win back in 87…”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah…” Jack chuckled, “I woke up in Nashville, in some cut-off jeans that obviously weren’t mine…”

“Wait, you’re Texan, but your uncle lived near Nashville?”

“Nope.”

“Then how?”

“Hell if I know…” Jack shrugged, “But I ended up calling some military brothers of mine to get my ass back to the right state… And swore to myself that unless whatever TD serves me comes from a store-brought bottle, I’m not having any of it…”

“But you still take your chances with our shine?”

“Never woken up in a different state drinking any other homemade liquor than uncles…” Jack shrugged as he raised his glass.

“Good luck…”

Jack winked at her.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Leaving the jar at the table when she went to set over another pot of coffee might have been a mistake.

She had recognized Jack’s looks as soon as he had stepped into her bar early in the night. This was a guy who was planning on drinking to forget. But her older brother was the same kind, she knew a few tricks to delay just that. Besides, she wanted the chance to flirt with the handsome soldier, even if he was a bit older than her 32 years of age. He had finally told her that he’d just turned 50 a little while back, and that made it totally acceptable. Half of 50 is 25, plus 7… 32. Perfect…

But when she came back after her coffee duty a few minutes later, the amount of shine in the jar had been reduced by a fair amount, but it obviously hadn’t hit his system… Yet…

“I’ve got something else too…” she promised as she grabbed a hold of the mason jar. “Let me get that…”

“No… No no no…” Jack slurred, okay, his speech had been a little more impaired. She had to admit that. “Let that be, tastes good.”

“I promise this will too…” she tried, “Just give me half a minute…”

Jack studied her carefully, before he nodded.

Her shoulders relaxed a bit after that. The least thing she could do was to make sure he didn’t consume even more alcohol. Judging by the half empty jar, how the heck had he managed to down that much in the little time she had been away? –Jack had definitely had his share and then some.

She hurried behind the bar and placed the shine next to the other jars of the same stuff. She was fully stocked, Sherriff Verner loved that stuff after all…

Then she grabbed an empty mason jar and opened her fridge. Pulling out a jug of fresh lemonade, without any alcohol, she poured a generous helping into the jar. She placed the jug back in the fridge and closed the door, put a lid over the jar and grabbed two mugs of coffee before she headed back to the booth.

“Here, a coffee for each of us, and some of auntie’s secret recipe…”

“Ws iss thath…?” Jack slurred heavily as he almost managed to point to the newly provided jar full of lemonade.

“Well, it’s not really moonshine, but it’s something aunt Bessie usually makes. Has a good burn in it, that’s for sure…” She hoped, and assumed, that Jack was drunk enough by now not to notice the evident lack of kick and burn in the kid friendly drink she was about to serve him.

“Waz it from?”

“Tastes kinda like lemonade… I know there are real lemons in there, and some maple syrup…” she answered truthfully, before she continued with a lie. “Other than that, no friggin’ idea…”

“S’nds good…” Jack smiled a lopsided grin and pushed his glass towards Michelle.

“How much?”

Jack held up four fingers.

“-If you say so…” Michelle shrugged, and filled up Jack’s glass just as the doorbell rang, again.

Sheriff Verner had just entered the bar. He took off his hat and walked over to the bar. “I’ll just help myself Mich…”

“Okay!” she called back, knowing that the sheriffs next move would be to come over to the booth she sat at.

“Whoah…” Jack grimaced after taking a sip of the lemonade, “You ri’ht… ‘S strong…”

Michelle barely held back her laugh at Jack’s miscalculation, and was able to chirp off “I told you so…”

Half a minute later Verner stood right by the table, grinning.

“Serving him with aunt Bessie’s I see?” Verner smirked, sharing a knowing look with Michelle.

“Yeah, had a little grandma incident.”

“Drinking too much?” the sheriff asked, and Michelle nodded towards the bar, giving a silent sign that they should continue their conversation over there.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“So, another city-slicker who can’t hold his beverage?” Verner asked with an amused smirk as they made it to the bar.

“Good ole Texan boy, trying to drink to forget I guess…” Michelle sighed, casting a glance over her shoulder in Jack’s direction.

“Okay?”

“He was the one who spoke at the memorial today…” Michelle swallowed, “I figure he’s seen a lot more crap than what he let on there. Probably saw a lot more crap than Mark ever have…”

“Your older brother?”

Michelle nodded, “Mark saw someone die. In our country, no guns around. Car accident… It broke him.”

“Yeah, poor kid hasn’t been the same since…” the sheriff agreed, glancing towards the jars of white lightning. “Does this one get violent too?”

“Hasn’t yet…”

“Good.” Verner nodded, “Cause your brother is one fine gentleman, when he’s sober.”

“But when he gets a little in him, he can’t stop drinking… And he almost turns into old Frank…”

“Yep, bless his soul.”

“Mark or Frank?”

“Both I guess, but my job got a lot easier when old Frank decided to park his slippers.”

“That sounds awful, that wasn’t very nice.”

“Well, neither is having glass bottles thrown at you because you try to, in a polite and quiet way, try to tell the grandpa of the town that two bottles of Cuervo in a night might be one too many…”

“That old man sure knew how to aim…”

The sheriff nodded, “I have to admit, I don’t miss that… And the worst thing, you can’t really stop ‘em either… They’ll just go off and get even more shitfaced on their own. Real risk to themselves and the environment.”

“I tried to drink with Jack over there, did good too for a couple of hours. Then I forgot the jar at the table as I went to brew some more coffee…”

“Well, whoops…” Verner winced, “How much?”

“Almost half a jar…”

“Whew… He’s going to have one massive headache tomorrow…” the sheriff winced, rubbing his temple in sympathy. “Should we get him home?”

“I don’t think we should leave him to himself just yet. Figured it was safe to pour lemonade down his throat…”

The sheriff glanced over at Jack, who had taken a napkin and was picking it to pieces.

“Doesn’t look like he will be the worst problem to ever sit down at this bar…”

“No, no one can compete with that. And you know it…” Michelle sighed. “You’ll just serve yourself with some nachos, won’t you?”

“You know I will, go play shrink or whatever to our new friend over there…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The changes in Jack when she made it back to the table were subtle at first. First thing she noticed was that the smile she had worked hard to build up on that beautiful face all night had faded completely. Okay, maybe that wasn’t so subtle when you remembered it as a 1000W smile, but…

After sitting and trying to keep half of a conversation for a few minutes, the hardest part being to make sense of the gibberish Jack drawled about. Not an easy task, but you sit. You nod. You say ‘oh yeah?’, ‘No, really?’, “Great.’, and “That sounds awful…’ every now and then. That’s how you handle drunken gibberish.

Pretty soon his eyes welled up with tears, and he threw back another four fingers worth of lemonade, thinking it would make him drunker. Luckily it wouldn’t.

“How are you doing, Tex?”

“Sh’dve been me…” he croaked out, sniffling to keep from crying.

When Michelle’s only response was a puzzled tilt of her head, Jack repeated himself.

Michelle had a uncomfortable feeling in her gut that she knew exactly what the soldier in front of her had in mind.

“Me. Shhhdve be me…” Jack repeated another time, this time letting his head drop to the table with a loud dunk. “To’y shd be ‘ere… I shhdn’t…”

Those slurred words cut deep, almost pulling a sob from Michelle in their way. She had come across this a few times before, both as a bartender and as a registered nurse. Survivors guilt. This poor man probably had enough of it for half a platoon.

“You can’t mean that…” she probably shouldn’t straight out disagree with him, but it was the first thing to tumble out of her mouth. She should probably have worked around the main issue, first. Then after a little while make Jack figure out on his own premises that having himself here was just as good.

“H’ll if I cn say th’t!” Jack growled, “T’mmy was b’tter m’n! He’s was good!”

‘He’s was good? Great sentence structure there buddy…’ Michelle thought at the back of her mind.

“Well, if it helps… I’m glad that YOU are here. I’m glad I could sit and talk with you all night…”

“no…”

“Yes I am…” Michelle reached across the table, almost touching Jack’s hand, before thinking better of it and pulling her hand back. She didn’t need to startle the man.

“No… ‘mma disgrace… ‘m not’in…”

Michelle lost her words. To her, the handsome soldier on crutches had been a delight go get to know. And in just a few short hours it felt like it would be hell to live without him once he packed up and headed back to where he spent his time. To have that man think he wasn’t the best thing next to kittens and puppies was unbelievable to her.

They talked in circles for a good while, him loathing himself, her trying to make him understand how perfect and good she thought he was in her eyes. It lasted almost an hour, until Ken-Bobby managed to topple a table, making sure the four glasses on it and the hardwood tabletop all went to the floor in a loud crash.

Suddenly, when she looked back, Jack Dalton wasn’t sitting across from her. She looked around, he wasn’t out on the floor, heavens knew he wouldn’t get far with that leg.

“SORRY MICH!” Ken-Bobby yelled across the room, his loud obnoxious drunk voice booming between the walls.

A low noise. Barely audible in the chaos of her bar revealed Jack’s position. –Under the table. Curled up as best as he could. Eyes wide with panic, hyperventilating.

Michelle scooted out from the booth, and hurried over to Verner. “I’ve got a slight situation over here now. Care to take care of KB and that mess for me?”

Verner nodded. “Sure Mich…”

“Thank you…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

As she made it back to the booth, she mentally went over what should have been on the table already. 2 coffee cups, 2 glasses, 1 jar of lemonade, 1 empty bowl of nachos, salt, pepper, chili sauce. No knives, forks or other cutlery.  
Everything that should be on the table still was.

She kneeled down in front of the table. Trying to make eye-contact. It wasn’t easy, soldier’s eyes were darting left and right.

“Hey there…” she whispered in a soft voice as she gently waved her hand just a bit. “You’re safe. Nothing bad is happening here…”

Jack finally managed to lock eyes on her, even though he was still trembling.

“Jack, you’re safe…” she repeated, “Do you understand?”

Jack didn’t move.

“Can you hear me?”

Jack nodded hesitantly.

“You’re in a bar. In Texas…” she tried to explain, “That noise, it was a table falling over. It wasn’t dangerous. Nothing bad is happening…”

She kept her voice soft and mellow, like she had sanded off all sharp edges from it.

“Can you tell me where you are, so I know you heard me?”

“Bar.”

“Good…” she nodded, still sitting on the floor about three feet from the table. “Where…?”

Jack shrugged, and quickly scrambled to the other side of the table as Ken-Bobby decided to throw a loud protest of being kicked out, at least for 30 minutes.

“So-so-so…” Michelle hushed, “You’re still in a bar. Just one of my customers who don’t wanna leave…”

Jack’s eyes flashed between her and the direction of the noise.

“Trust me, it’ll be over soon. Nothing dangerous. I promise…”

Michelle was relieved when she saw Jordan raising up from her seat in the corner where she usually sat and read some sort of college books. Knowing that Ken-Bobby would leave quietly once she was in the picture, Michelle’s shoulders sagged down and she returned her full focus to Jack once again.

“Can you still hear me?”

Jack nodded.

“Where are we?”

“Afghanistan…” Jack shivered, before continuing. “Kabul…”

“No… We’re in a bar in Texas.” Michelle guided, “Can you see that neon sign above my left shoulder? Says ‘Bud Light’ doesn’t it?”

Jack leaned sideways to look for what she was describing, finding the sign easily enough, then nodding.

“Bud Light. Now, can you tell me where we are?”

“A bar?”

“Yes… We’re at a bar…” she nodded, “Where?”

Jack shrugged.

“Texas…” she assured, “You are home in the US, you’re safe. There was a little ruckus here, but now that’s over with. It was  a table crashing to the floor. Nothing dangerous…”

“A table?”

“Yes, a table…” she repeated. “Some big fella lost his footing near one and sent it to the ground…”

Jack hesitantly looked in the direction the noise had come from.

“Would you like to come out here? It can’t be good for you to sit on the floor with that injured leg of yours…”

Jack shook his head. But didn’t move an inch.

“Okay, do you mind if I crawl in next to you?”

Jack didn’t answer, he was obviously still focusing on evening out his breaths.

“I promise, I’m about as dangerous as a lamb…”

Jack held her gaze for almost a minute, before his head dropped to his chest.

“Don’t…” He sighed, “I can be…”

“What?”

“I can be dangerous…” he answered as he brought his left hand up to wipe away a few tears he hadn’t noticed until then. “It happened again, didn’t it?”

“What did you think happened?”

“I had an episode…” Jack shrugged, still trembling with adrenaline. “PTSD or whatever the doctor called it…”

Michelle leaned against the couch on the opposite side of Jack. He was in the right hand corner up against the wall, she was near the rest of the bar to the left.

“I guess so…”

“Jesus, I’m so sorry…” Jack said, hiding his eyes with his hand, “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be…”

“You must think I’m a wimp…”

“Not at all!” Michelle said as she inched closer to the wall underneath the table. She stopped about halfway there. “Just a natural reaction…”

Jack shook his head.

Michelle wanted so bad to comfort this cinnamon roll of a human.

“Do you mind if I touch your leg?” she asked, looking over at Jack. “The one without the cast?”

Jack shook his head again, “No… Go ahead…”

She placed her left hand on his right leg, and started rubbing her hand in gentle circles over it. They sat like that for a couple of minutes, in silence.

Jack’s eyes were glued to Michelle’s hand travelling around on his right leg. After a little while it almost became hypnotic, like it was the only thing that mattered.

“Mind if I come closer?”

“Huh?”

“Mind if I come closer?” she repeated.

“You’re already touching me…”

“Well, I want to sit next to you… Can I?”

After a few seconds of consideration Jack nodded and Michelle crawled up next to him. Her shoulder to his upper arm. She carefully placed her leg right next to his, careful not to jostle his injured leg. Then she let her hand rest palm up on her thing, and open invitation for him to grab a hold of it. It only took a couple of minutes before he understood the invitation and intertwined his fingers with hers.

Before long, she had her head rested up against his shoulder.

“How are you doing?” she whispered, rubbing her thumb across the outside of his.

“A little shaken…” he admitted. “Sorry you had to see that…”

“You don’t have to apologize for it.”

“I kinda do…”

“You couldn’t help it… Therefore you don’t have to apologize…”

“I could have been stronger…” Jack sighed, exhaustion again evident in his voice. The way he spoke his words still held a hint of drunkenness but he seemed a lot more sober now than a couple of hours earlier.

“Dear, that right there… It has nothing to do about not being strong. Most likely you’ve been too strong for too long…”

Jack shrugged.

“Trust me, Jack… You are strong enough…” she said looking up at his face, “And you are good enough…”

“You don’t really know me…” Jack reminded her.

“I know you enough…” she reasoned and snuggled her head against the outside of his shoulder, she felt her heart skip a beat as he kind of melted into her in return.

 

**Okay… So…**

**A little survivors guilt, a little PTSD and a bit of fluff…  
Hope you had a good time reading this. **

**At first I tried really hard to figure out drinking/bar laws for Texas… Then I just decided to throw whatever law there is (or isn’t) out the window, and decided –the law is in on this… The sheriff is a frequent there. What the heck. A rather lawless dive bar, who cares… *Shrug***

**  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the A/Ns at the beginning and end of every chapter will be the same as when I first posted it on ff.net. Even though I'm a bit behind on posting it here at AO3

**Hello again, just little old me… Back with another chapter, hope you don’t mind…**

 

“Hey son… Do you need some help out from there?” the sheriff asked after the last other patrons had decided that enough was enough and that the most sober one should drive them all home.

Jack jerked awake, blinking with confusion for a couple of seconds before he realized where he was. Still on the floor, under the table, with Michelle leaning against him. Or him leaning against her… Maybe a mix.

Trying to move by himself he quickly realized that it would be both difficult and painful to handle the task on his own, he nodded.

“Great, poke her a few times. Get her awake…” the said sheriff pointed to Michelle, “I can’t leave her here all night, now can I?”

Jack chuckled a bit, “Think she’ll have one sore neck if you do…”

The sheriff laughed and nodded as Jack nudged Michelle awake.

“Mornin’ sleeping beauty…” the sheriff boomed, startling Michelle before she really woke up. “Wanna help me help your friend here up on the seat again?”

She nodded and started helping Jack out from underneath the table.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Once Jack was safely placed on the long seat of the booth again, Michelle loosened her ponytail and untangled her hair. Then she tied it back up again in a tighter ponytail.

“You guys just sit here while I clean for the night, when I’m done maybe we both could help Jack back to his motel…” she suggested, looking at Verner.

The sheriff nodded, taking a sip of the coffee he had poured himself.

“I take it you made everyone pay up…” Michelle asked, glancing over at Verner again.

“Yes Ma’am… Even Rooster…”

“Wow, I’m impressed… Did you sic Jordan after him?”

“No, just threatened with that…” sheriff Verner answered while he blushed.

“Okay, you boys just stay here. Don’t do anything stupid, it’ll only take 30 minutes or so… Tops…”

“Okay Mich…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple of seconds after Michelle had left them to get a bucket and a mop for the floor, sheriff Verner leaned over the table towards Jack.

“You’re one helluva dude, ain’t you?”

Jack met the man’s gaze, then looked around the room, scanning for possible exits.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, rather nervously. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get away in time if this took the turn his instincts told him it could. He just had to play it cool, hope for the best.

“No, just…” the sheriff took another sip of his coffee, “I’ve been trying to flirt with that woman, get her to look at me as something else than a friend ever since she was in high school…”

Jack nodded, beginning to tense up. It was never a good thing to get between a gal and the guy who believed he had dibs on her. And from his angle, it looked like he had just made that mistake.

“Okay, she was with this guy from two towns over for a couple of years. I kept my distance then… I’m not one to barge in and ruin relationships…” Verner shrugged, “But you come in to town, and in one night. ONE NIGHT. You have Michelle making heart-eyes towards you…”

Jack was about as tense as he could. To be fair, he couldn’t sense any anger coming off the sheriff. But he knew this situation too well, he had been in similar ones too many times to count.

“-Sorry?”

“No… No no no…” The sheriff waved a hand in front of him. “Not like that… Not like that at all…”

“Okay?”

“I’m just curious, how do you do it? I haven’t seen her like this, ever…”

Jack couldn’t do anything but shrug his shoulders, he still wasn’t trusting where the sheriff stood. If he had to prepare to get his ass handed to him before he left for LA or not.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, whatever you do… Be kind to her. Whether this thing, if it is a thing. If you’re into her too… Whether this thing lasts a few days, or if it’s the end game… Be kind to her. Okay?”

Jack nodded.

“Good, cause if you ever, EVER, do wrong by her… Doesn’t matter who you are, or how strong and tough you are…” the sheriff held his gaze for a few seconds, making sure Jack knew he was serious as could be, “I’ll end you.”

Jack swallowed and nodded.

“I don’t mean to scare you, just telling it like it is.” Verner added as he sat back against the seat, “She’s one of my best friends. I know I have no authority over her, I know that. She’s not mine, at least not as anything else than a good friend. But I can make damn sure no other guy comes along and ruins her life for her.”

Jack dared to take a deep breath, it seemed the scenario he had imagined wouldn’t happen after all.

“Now, tell me a bit about yourself…”

“What is there to tell?” Jack shrugged, still not completely comfortable in his position.

“Name, DOB, interests…” sheriff Verner suggested.

“Jack Dalton. February 3rd 1967, Football… Flying… Driving… Used to do rodeo way back when…” Jack answered shortly, he had that interrogation feeling, he couldn’t describe it as anything else. It was the interrogation feeling. “And you, sheriff…”

“Sam Verner, August 15th 1978\. Football, hell… I am from the state of Texas.”

“Kinda like religion down here…” Jack grinned, feeling a bit more at ease.

Sam Verner nodded. “I also play guitar and do a bit of woodcarving…”

“Cool…” Jack nodded, he could play a couple of songs himself, but didn’t see himself as good at it or anything. Woodcarving, well… He used knives in other ways.

“So you used to ride rodeo?”

Jack nodded.

“Long since you quit, or?”

“A while. Quit right around 9/11, it was a few months later I think I had my last ride. Was home from Afghanistan, on leave. Had some family business to attend to, managed to get in a couple of good rides before I shipped back. Then I got this…” Jack explained as he pulled the neck of his t-shirt out wide revealing a serious looking scar near his right shoulder, before he pulled up the sleeve to reveal just how far it stretched. “Couldn’t do much for a couple of months, and to be honest. Getting kicked around and thrown didn’t tempt me as much after that…”

“A bull or a bronc did that?” Verner asked with raised eyebrows.

“No, an IED did that…” Jack corrected, before shaking his head violently as if he was trying to clear away the memories the same way you erase the drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch.

“But it works well now?”

“Good as it is ever going to get I guess, it’s old news by now…” Jack shrugged.

“That looked incredibly painful.”

“It was. Years ago…” Jack admitted, now it only hurt when he was around colder climates. He hadn’t liked winter assignments ever since the early 90’s, but you kept your mouth shut and your complaints to yourself. And you got shit done.

“Okay, next question… Ever hit a woman?”

“Yes.” Jack answered, “During a couple of operations, I have done that. But I think I had every right, seeing as the times that has happened. The women have been charging at me with either guns, knives or machetes… I’ve never hit a woman who didn’t try to kill or seriously harm me, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I guess that is the one loophole there is…”

“You?”

The sheriff stayed silent for a few seconds, then he shook his head. “Not as an adult.”

“Okay?”

“Well, since you’re brutally honest and didn’t swipe your stories under the rug… Think I hit my sister a couple of times when we were kids, she’s five years older than me… I think I stopped by the time I was 12…”

“Did your sister also do what mine did?” Jack asked, “Dressing you up in their old dresses and put makeup all over your face?”

“That torture? Yes… Lots of times.”

Jack smirked, “Sisters, can’t live with them, can’t live without them I guess.”

The sheriff nodded.

“You like to read?”

Jack shrugged.

“Come on, you know if you like to read or not…”

“Well, I like to… I’m just not good at it…” Jack finally answered with a shrug.

“Okay, that’s also an option…” Sam nodded, “Personally, I’m a bookworm. Currently I’m engulfed in Stephen King’s ‘Under the Dome’”

“I saw a bit of the TV-show, if the book is anything like it, it could be a fun read…”

“Trust me, it’s better!” Sam smiled, “Stephen King has this incredible way of describing things, I was sold by the woodchuck at the start…”

“Woodchuck?”

“Yeah, the book starts with a woodchuck. Well, actually it starts with a woman taking flying lessons, but by the second page we meet the woodchuck…”

“Okay.” Jack nodded, figuring that the sheriff had asked the questions important to him and now settled for small talk. “So… Ever been in the military?”

“For a short time. I enlisted, had a short stay in Afghanistan. To be honest, I wasn’t cut out for it. I didn’t even make it the full tour.” Sam Verner answered, sounding ashamed.

“Hey, nothing wrong with that.” Jack quickly consoled, “People are meant for different things. My partner, Mac, smart as could be. Comes up with all different kinds of gizmos. But when we are on op’s he won’t use a gun, I guess that’s what I’m there for.”

“Sounds like you’re fond of him…”

“What can I say, kid’s like a little brother.” Jack smiled.

“Okay boys… I’m all done here, should we get going?” Michelle asked as she stepped over to the men.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The fact that Jack had been out hadn’t gone unnoticed by Mac. Around midnight, an old friend from the Delta Force had called him up. It was a routine he had installed ever since their team started parting ways. Okay, most of the team still worked as one unit, but Mac and Jack had gone on to other things.

The first thing Mac had noticed was the empty bed a few feet over, next thing he checked was if Jack had decided that he would spend the night on the floor instead. It happened often enough. Then he found the handwritten note, Jack’s chicken-scratch letters sprawled across the piece of paper.

_‘Hit the bar. Be back whenever. –J.’_

Seeing the note Mac knew that there was literally nothing he could do. He had tried that a couple of times through their friendship. Once he even ended up with a pretty nasty shiner. He had learned from that mistake.

He finished the conversation with his old team mate, informing him that he wouldn’t be able to reach Jack before the next afternoon and that he would call back if something happened to Jack before that.

“Alright, little brother. Take care…”

“Will do, you too… Say hi to the rest of the pack for me, will you?”

“Sure thing baby brother…” the warmth in the other man’s voice was thick, “They all say hi back!”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Mac was relieved when he heard a key fumbling against the keyhole outside a little while before the sun would rise on another blazing hot Texas morning. He figured his best tactic would be to just ignore it for the time being. Jack probably needed to sleep, and/or he wouldn’t be in the mood for any confrontations anyway.

Mac’s curiosity peaked a little when he heard his old friend slur a low ‘See ya around’ to someone which quickly was answered by a female voice.

“I’ll call you later, get some sleep soldier…”

Mac didn’t have to look to know that Jack would flash a mock salute to the woman.

“Good night Michelle…”

There was a silence, and Mac interpreted it as a hug being shared, or a kiss.

“Now, get yourself in bed, I want to make sure you get there safely before I leave.”

“Think I’ll opt for the floor…” Jack thought out-loud.

“What now?” the woman, Michelle, asked surprised.

“-Coping skills…” Jack’s voice sounded a little ashamed.

Michelle didn’t say anything for a few seconds, when she broke the silence again her voice was even softer. Something Mac hadn’t believed possible.

“Okay, as long as you get a couple good hours of sleep.”

**Okay… Hope you’re enjoying yourself. I tried not making Sam Verner into a douche bag, but had to show that he was VERY protective of his friend Michelle.**

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again friends.**

**First of all, I’d like to thank Gib for letting me play around with her OCs. They are awesome! Hope I did them justice, even though it’s short and… Well… Not exactly action-filled… (Hopefully I’ll get to borrow them again later on…)**

**Also, this is just a short chapter, cause this got stuck in my head after reading Gib’s (epic-as everything she writes) ‘Government Issue’.**

 

His phone buzzed, and Jack could swear it was like having a siren set off right beside his ear. His head hurt immensely as he fumbled to get the electronic device out of his pocket. He then realized he still had his jeans on.

He answered the phone, letting out a few unintelligible groans and grunts before he managed to master his tongue enough to ask “What?”

He would recognize the laughter on the other side of the phone call anywhere.

“Man, baby brother said you were out drinking… Didn’t expect you to get this shitfaced!” Cooper chuckled, laughing even harder as Jack let out a pained moan when his head protested against the loud voice.

“Shhhh…”

“Sorry, boss…” Coop said with a hushed voice. Even though it was years since Jack actually stopped being their boss, the old team still called him just that. “Just callin’ to check in. Make sure you survived yesterday you know… Just the usual…”

“Barely…” Jack groaned, “Not sure I’m alive right now…”

“Well, you’re talking to me… So I guess you didn’t end up as one of the 22…” Cooper said, his voice flat. Stoic.

“Doing roll call?”

“Affirm.” Coop nodded from where he was stuck on the opposite side of the earth, “We all made it through this one too…”

“Good. Shit… My head…”

“Hangover?”

“Hangover from hell…” Jack winced, “Remember that time I ran into the barrel of that tank?”

“I do…”

“That fades in comparison.”

“Ouch…” Coop winced, “Guess you just want to sleep then?”

“Yup.”

“Good to hear from you anyway…”

“Thanks, I’m glad you called.” Jack admitted, “Good to hear the rest of the boys are okay.”

“Call you in a couple of hours? Get an extended sit-rep?”

“Sure.”

“Sleep well boss.”

“Thanks…” Jack smiled softly before the call disconnected and he once again could catch a couple of Z’s.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Boss doing alright?” Duncan asked as Coop pocketed his phone.

“In a little need of some sleep I guess, but the whole crew made it through this op too…”

Duncan nodded, “Was your brother, right? Reason for these calls you make after every Memorial Day, every Veteran’s Day… Whenever something big happens on the news…?”

Coop clenched his jaw, nodding.

“I met him a couple of times. During basic training…” Dunc remembered, running his hands down his face. “I remember doing push-ups, him down on his hands and knees by my head. Yelling. ‘Forget 10 more, keep going till I’m tired! If you want to go where you said, better kick up your fucking pace!’ I owed my spot on the Delta Force to him. Don’t think I would have met the requirements if it hadn’t been for him. He was a tough son of a gun that brother of yours.”

“He was…” Coop nodded, collapsing on top of the crate which acted as their table, “Never saw it coming though… Guess you never do…”

Duncan nodded, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, I’ve got to act like a trained monkey for a while. Get the operation details from TOC…” Coop sighed as he pushed himself off the crate again, “Man, Jack was much better at this shit…”

“Years of practice…”

“Nah… He just had it in him…”

“So will you, in a few more years…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Mac re-entered Jack’s motel room couple of hours later. He had a bag of take out in his left hand and a large cup of coffee in his right.

“How’s the head?”

“Better…” Jack answered after he managed to blink his vision clear. Then he pushed off the ground, careful with his leg. “How long did I sleep?”

“Think you’re going on your 12th hour now…” Mac shrugged, “Brought some grub, figured that if you weren’t ill you would probably be hungry as a shark…”

Jack smirked, hopping over to the table without using his crutches or anything else to aid him. “What would I have done without ya?”

“Called for delivery…” Mac shrugged, knowing that wasn’t what Jack was meaning. “How’s the leg?”

“Let’s not talk about that…” Jack sighed.

“Bad?”

Jack just hit him with a look that told Mac not to press the matter.

“Okay, here…” Mac shrugged, handing over the take-out bag.

“Thank you…” Jack yawned as he opened up the paper bag to find a box of Chinese. “You’re the best.”

**Okay… Another chapter down.**

**Again, Gib… THANK YOU!!!  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Back again…**

 

As time passed, it was obvious to Mac that Jack was in a whole lot of pain. Last night’s bar trip had taken its toll on the former Delta operator.

As Jack grew more annoyed and tired with the pain, he turned grumpier and grumpier. Soon enough he was the human reincarnation of the Grumpy Cat. And even though Mac adored and loved the older man as a brother and father figure, he couldn’t stand this version of Jack for too long at the time.

Just as Mac was about to sneak back to his own motel room, Jack’s phone rang. Of course Jack had managed to leave his phone on the nightstand before he had placed himself on the couch by the window. The heavy sigh coming from him as he was about to push himself out of the couch had Mac stop in his tracks.

“Let me get that for you, before I head out…” He knew moving would be a bitch for Jack, so he skipped over and grabbed the phone for Jack.

“Don’t have to…” Jack grumbled, but sat back on the couch and lifted his leg back onto the seat. “But thank you…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Yep, hello… It’s Jack Dalton…” Jack answered as he accepted the call.

“Hi, it’s Michelle…” the voice on the other end greeted. “How are you feeling?”

Jack shrugged, he didn’t want to complain to her. “Not as bad as when I woke up the first time today…”

“Okay, at least that’s good.”

“How about you?” Jack asked, draping his left hand over the back of the couch. He forced himself to keep his tone light and his grumbling to a minimum. It was easy enough around new people, some sort of ‘honeymoon-phase’ of sorts. He didn’t bother to do that around Mac anymore.

“I’m good…” Michelle answered, her tone light with a smile brightening up her voice. “So, do you still want some company today?”

“Sure thing!” Jack grinned. He wanted to get to know this lady better, and realized that the opportunity might be a one time chance.

“Wanna go out for dinner tonight?”

Jack hesitated a little, “I don’t think I’m up for that… I’m kinda having a couch-potato day…”

“Okay, but are you hungry?”

“Could always eat something, but it isn’t a pressing matter…”

“Okay, but if you’re still at the motel room in an hour or so. I could bring by some homemade stuff.”

“You don’t have to do that, at least not for me…” Jack smiled picking at the seam of the back of the couch. “But trust me, I won’t be heading out.”

“I want to do it. Besides, I usually make some sort of dinner every day, so I’m not really stepping out of my way either.”

“Well, then… I would love it.”

“I’ll see you in a while then…” Michelle chirped.

“Yeah, see you…” Jack smiled back, and waited for the call to disconnect.

Company and homemade dinner? This day might not be too bad after all.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

There was a knock on the door 68 minutes later. Because the motel door had a spring lock like just about every other motel room door, Jack had to get up and open it.

Michelle stood outside the door with a big zinc tub, in it she had one casserole, a couple of bowls and cutlery.

“Wow, that smells amazing.” Jack commented with raised eyebrows, before he went on to greet her. “Hello, by the way.”

Michelle beamed towards Jack, happy that her home cooked meal would be much appreciated.

“Hello yourself…” she winked.

“Come on in…” Jack said. Hopping aside, making room for Michelle to step inside. Wincing as just about his whole body protested.

“You okay?”

“Coach.potato.day…” Jack bit out, sinking down in the nearest chair. He spent a couple of seconds to compose himself, before he sat up straight rubbing at his left knee. Then he tried out for one of his best crooked smiles. “Sorry, think I had a rough night yesterday…”

“You did…” Michelle sighed as she put the tub on top of the television table. The furniture was no longer in use, because the old box had been changed out with a wall mounted flat screen. “You took a tumble as you tried to get to the restrooms by yourself some time yesterday. Travis said he wasn’t sure, but he thought it looked like you stepped down on your leg then… You assured us all that everything was alright, but I could drive you to the hospital now if you’d like…?”

“No… And who was Travis again?”

“Big hairy dude. Looks like he beats up kittens all day, but he is really one of the kindest and most caring folks I know of. Looks can deceive…”

“Oh, yeah… That dude.” Jack nodded as he thought back, “Reminded me of a guy I once knew. Charlie. One of my fellow army men… Could make life a living hell for you if you happened to get him to whip your sorry ass into shape. But you know, necessary roughness. Heart of gold.”

“Once knew?”

“He’s no longer… He com-” Jack started, but the phrases ‘no longer with us’ and ‘committed suicide’ felt so overused. “He, uhh… Chowed down on some muzzle blast…”

Okay, that sounded heartless and rude, but really… There were no way to sugar-coat it, not for him. The guy had been his best friend, and even though it was years since it happened. Jack hadn’t quite forgiven him or himself for what had happened.

“My condolences…”

Jack nodded, then jumped when his phone suddenly started ringing. He picked it up and saw the name on the screen.

“Crap.” He breathed, “I really need to take this one. I’m sorry…”

Michelle shrugged and nodded. “Then take it.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Hey Coop!” Jack answered quickly. Michelle could hear the other person, Coop, say something. Probably something within the usual ‘hello’ or ‘how are you?’.

“No, I’m not involved in that op. I’m kinda sidelined for the time being…” Jack responded to something the voice had said.

This time Michelle could hear Coop repeat the word ‘sidelined’ quite loud.

“Yeah, messed up my leg a few weeks back. Dealing with crutches and all that crap…”

‘Crutches? Dude, what did you do man?’ Michelle heard the other man quite clearly. ‘Jump off a cliff!?!?’

Jack’s cheeks turned red as he nodded. “Matter of fact… -Yes…”

‘Boss! We’ve talked about this, if you ever think of doing something stupid…’ the man, Coop, almost shrieked. ‘Call me, or someone! Talk about it! I know we think we’re tough Deltas, but we’re not too tough to talk things through!’

“Wasn’t like that Cooper…” Jack informed, “I was on an op, had to get down a ledge. Misjudged, miscalculated… I don’t know. Landed shitty, took out the thinnest bone in my left leg.”

‘So you’re…?’

“Right now, I’m having a beautiful woman over. She has brought some homemade chow with her. I’m good, I’m glad you called. But it’s got to be like 3 in the freaking morning over where you are.” Jack quickly calculated after glancing at the clock on the wall. “Whadda’ya say I call you before I turn in tonight? Bet it’ll be mid-day for you before then…”

‘Okay. Enjoy your company, and I demand an extended, EXTENDED, sit-rep by then!’

Jack chuckled and nodded to himself. “Okay, Coop… Talk to you later.”

‘Love you boss…’

“You too brother… Take care!”

‘Take care!’

Michelle watched with a trace of amusement as the call ended without any definitive good-byes.

“Sorry…” said as he returned his focus on Michelle. “It was Coop, the kid brother of the guy I just mentioned…”

Michelle studied Jack, not saying anything herself.

“Charlie and I went through basic together, ended up pushing each other beyond limits even we didn’t believe we could reach. Ended up in the same unit. Couple years later, his kid brother joins us. Tall, strong and a give’em hell attitude. Basically what our unit were made up of…”

Michelle couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips.

“Went through hell and back a couple of times. We were all in the same rotation. It was our unit, just us six. We had leave at the same time, and…” Jack swallowed hard as his eyes suddenly teared up, “One morning, round 6 a.m. I get a call from Coop, saying that Charlie had… -You know…”

Michelle couldn’t speak. She didn’t know how to respond. What do you say to something like that?

Jack wiped his eyes, like it would wipe away this current train of thoughts. “Anyway, whenever Coop calls. I kinda have to answer.”

Michelle nodded. She understood that perfectly clear.

“Enough about that…” Jack sat forward, “You look perfect!”

Michelle blushed, she didn’t feel perfect. Her ponytail was sitting uneven, she wore a thin worn pair of denim shorts and an olive tank top.

“Thank you…” she smiled a shy smile, “You clean up pretty good yourself…”

Jack chuckled, “Yeah, well… You could say taking a shower wasn’t optional today…”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“So you were a Delta Operator?” Michelle finally built up the confidence to ask as she poured up a second helping from the casserole.

Jack looked up, stunned.

“Sorry, your friend talked quite loud on the phone…”

Jack nodded, then he relaxed. “Yeah, I was Delta.”

“Miss it?”

“Not really…” Jack shrugged, truth was; life hadn’t changed much for him. “Didn’t really change career path when I left…”

“The guy called you boss…?”

Jack chuckled, “Old habits die hard I guess. I was the senior and highest ranking in out unit. I got the glorious job of babysitting five adult children and presenting them with the details of the ops we were given.”

Michelle smirked, the way Jack described the old team told her a lot about the group. Obviously they meant everything to each other, his voice revealed that. And his words formed her a picture of them. Probably a rag-tag band of misfits, too wild for the regular army life, too good to write off.

“But hey, you know a lot about me already…” Jack let out a light laugh, “What about you? Always been a bartender?”

“No…” Michelle answered, her head slowly turning side to side. “I was a nurse for a few years, before my dad figured that he didn’t want to work at the bar full-time anymore. My older brother shouldn’t own a bar, and my younger brother had decided that he wanted to study to be a lawyer once he got through high school…”

Jack nodded with interest.

“The college part doesn’t seem to go too well, but… He’s trying.” Michelle shrugged, “I feel like the worst sister ever when I wish he would just quit now and take over the bar instead…”

“You don’t like it?”

“I enjoy it.” Michelle shrugged, “But I liked being a nurse more. You could always make things better then. If I couldn’t fix it, I could always make it more bearable.”

“Superhero in scrubs…” Jack smiled as he pictured Michelle in her uniform. Some men might have fantasies based around those skimpy little Halloween outfits that should resemble old-timey nurse dresses, but the real deal worked just as fine in Jack’s opinion.

“Big family or little one?”

“Two brothers… I’m stuck in the middle…” she shrugged, “And you?”

“Yeah, big one. Five sisters, one brother.” Jack let his head loll back. “My twin, Nick, looks just like me. Guess if we had a lot of fun as kids?”

“I’m thinking you did…”

Jack nodded proudly. “Teachers feared us…”

Michelle couldn’t help but laugh, making Jack chuckle in return.

“I bet they did…”

“I remember this one time, we both competed in rodeo for a while. Nick stopped competing our junior year of high school. I stopped after my second tour in the war on terror.”

“Not enough time?”

“More like, wrecked my shoulder and couldn’t hold on to the rope for months. Just never made it back to the arena after that…”

Michelle nodded. “I did barrel racing up to my senior year.”

**Okay. I have to take a break here, cause I’m yawning like a fool and I don’t like to have stuff waiting to be posted on my computer.**

**Hope you liked it.**

**  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello darlings! Just wanted to thank you all so much for the fantastic comments!**

 

Mac was about to lock himself in to Jack’s motel room with the spare key they he had made sure to get. The only thing stopping him was the female voice inside.

He stopped. Listened. Figured out that it had to be the woman who obviously had helped Jack home last night. Michelle.

Then he heard Jack. His voice was happy and up-beat. The familiar laughter that roared through the walls caused Mac to smile. It was good to hear that Jack was in a better mood now, than when Mac had left.

Mac grinned and headed for his own room instead.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“…and then I looked up, caramel-sauce covering literally every inch of my upper body, and I go: ‘Talk about a sticky situation…’” Jack explained as he thought back.

“That has to be the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard!” Michelle laughed. “And how did he react?”

“My staff sergeant?” Jack waited for her to nod. “Well, one of my buddies got the opportunity to take a picture of me, vacuuming the parking lot… Of course he sent a copy home to ma and pa… And another copy ended up on our ‘wall of shame’…”

Michelle chuckled, wiping away moisture from her eyes.

“Wasn’t the last time I pissed off SSG Parker either. He once made me shovel sand from one hole and into another, then back again, for three hours.”

“What had you done to deserve that?!”

“I might, or might not, have borrowed his Jeep without clarifying it with Parker first.”

“For what?”

“Charlie and I all wanted a trip to town. We were so fed up with everything army at that point, and just wanted to have one night off.” Jack shrugged.

“So you weren’t a choir-boy during your days in the army?” Michelle asked with a challenging eyebrow.

“No.” Jack chuckled, “My superiors quickly deemed me as trouble. Trouble, but with skills. Luckily enough Charlie and I were competing to be the best, we did well enough to be picked out for the special forces…”

“You liked being a Delta operator?”

“I fit in there…” Jack shrugged, “Plus the adrenalin highs and all the action suited me just fine. So, yeah… Guess I liked it. Sure as hell didn’t vacuum another parking lot after that.”

Michelle smiled. She couldn’t help but picture a young version of Jack with in the middle of a parking lot with a vacuum cleaner in  one hand.

“Please tell me that picture still exists…”

“Oh, it does…” Jack shuddered, “The guy who took it made sure to make enough copies to last a lifetime. Each Christmas he sends me a bar of snickers or something like that, and a copy of the damn picture.”

“…And how long must I have known you before I get to see that picture?”

“Guess the next chance is December 25th. He’ll probably send another copy this year too.”

“Hope you don’t mind a little holiday company then…” Michelle smirked.

“Inviting yourself over already?”

Blushing, Michelle nodded. “Unless you’d like to spend your holiday here in Texas…”

“Is heavenly food a part of that deal? Cause that casserole there was mindblowing!”

“Of course…”

“As long as I’m not working, I’ll show up at your bar. You know… Hoping to get invited back home with you…” Jack thought out loud, wishing that he would have the chance of taking a few days off when Christmas came around.  

“You better.” Michelle winked.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Hours passed, and suddenly the watch read 4 a.m..

Michelle yawned and stretched her back. “It’s been a fun night, but I bet you’re at least as tired as me…”

Jack had to admit he was tired.

“Guess I should get back home then…”

“Is it a long drive to your place?” Jack asked.

“40 minutes or so…” Michelle shrugged, “I cooked at the bar, figured that was the only way to serve you a warm meal…”

“If you’re tired, you shouldn’t drive all that way.” Jack shot in. “You could sleep here, I’ll take the couch or the floor.”

“You don’t have to…”

“I’d feel a whole lot better if I knew you wouldn’t be driving for so long to get back home, as tired as you are. And if you’re worried, I pose no threat…”

“Well, my family already knows where I am and who I’m with…” Michelle chuckled, “But I wouldn’t have come here if I really thought you would harm me…”

“Come on, stay the night. You can drive home after a couple of hours of shut-eye.”

Michelle grinned, “Well, guess I’ll stay then…”

Jack beamed.

“But only if you take the bed yourself…” Michelle nodded towards the furniture.

“I could sleep literally anywhere. Think our old squad motto was ‘anything can be your pillow…’” Jack informed, “It’s true though… Even a box of cartridges works just fine… You take the bed…”

“Okay, I’ll sleep in the bed…” Michelle sighed, before she continued, “As long as you’re also in it…”

Jack couldn’t conceal the surprise that attacked him. “Are you trying to get me to bed?”

“Just platonically, -for now.” Michelle winked, mischief in her eyes.

“For now?”

“For now.”

“I hope you’re not fooling me into getting my hopes up…” Jack tilted his head, “It’s not fair to play with a man’s feelings like that…”

“You’ve got feelings for me?”

“I’d be a fool if I didn’t.”

Michelle blushed, her left hand coming up to hide the shy smile on her lips.

“Lucky me.” Michelle smiled. Then she turned serious. “Oh, remember to call that Delta friend of yours before you go to bed!”

Jack nodded, “I remember. I’ll just step outside, might take a little while…”

“I supposed so, I’ll be waiting here when you get back in…”

**Okay… I do not have the most confidence in my writing skills when I step away from my whump-training-wheels… I always feel like my writing gets dull very quickly when I’m not showering the characters with pain… Anyone else know that problem?**

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Back at it, with yet another chapter…**

 

Jack leaned against the railing as he dialed the familiar number. It rang twice before the person on the other end of the line picked up.

“Hey Jack. SIT-REP! Extended. NOW!” Cooper’s voice boomed against his eardrum.

“I’m doing good. Little tired, so done with this…”

“No! Wrong sit-rep!” Cooper laughed, “Sure I want that one too, but the girl! Who is she? Any good chances there?”

Jack chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Well, her name’s Michelle. Think her last name is Sawyer. She’s a bartender and a nurse, and she’s a helluva cook!”

“And your heart has probably already decided that you love her, right?” Coop asked, hope in his voice.

“No… Naw…”

“You have. I can hear it in your voice, and your words!”

“Okay… SHE’s AMAZING!!!” Jack whispered intensely, kinda afraid that Michelle would hear him through the wall. “She’s… She’s…”

“Go on…” Coop laughed, “Tell me, how does she look?”

“Green eyes, tan skin, light brown hair. Curls.” Jack started as he pictured the woman in his room.

“How tall is she?”

“Not tall, 5’2” I’d guess…”

“That’s tiny!”

“Everyone is tiny compared to you, you tall freak!” Jack shot back, but there wasn’t any menace in his voice.

“I’m not that tall…”

“6’7” is too tall Coop…”

“6’8”…”

“Cooper… You are so freaking tall that you don’t really have to correct people when they think you’re an inch shorter than you actually are. It’s excessive either way!” Jack chuckled, “I don’t understand how you’re able to camouflage yourself, because you’re scary good at that!”

“-Reach out and touch someone…”

“Yeah, thanks for that heart-attack… Still haven’t forgotten it…” Jack grimaced as he remembered an op they had been on, where Cooper had camouflaged himself so good that Jack hadn’t seen him. Not before a giant hand had been wrapped around his ankle.

“For a second I was positive you were going to wet yourself back then boss.” Cooper teased.

“Yeah, I almost did.” Jack admitted, “Not fair to do such things to a fellow teammate during combat you know… But I’m glad you actually touched me with your hand and not a bullet.”

“Yeah-yeah… Back to Michelle… 5’2”, what more can you tell?”

“Perfect.”

“Come on!!!”

“Good hips, looks like a work of art when she walks…” Jack grinned, knowing it would make Cooper frustrated.

“Wide, medium, narrow? Good hips don’t really describe anything!”

“On her?”

“Yes, on her you moron! I don’t want to know how your hips looks, I already know that brother!”

“On a taller girl, I think they would be deemed as normal, or medium… But on her, they look slightly wide, just slightly, and up against her waist it’s enough to give a man respiratory problems.”

“Okay, think I can picture it!” Coop grinned.

“You can make out the muscles on her, but it’s covered in a healthy layer of fat. Looks stunning.”

“-She’s not jacked?”

“No… No-no-no…” Jack chuckled, “She’s fit.”

“How old is she?”

Jack fell silent for a couple of seconds, before he finally answered. “32…”

“So if this all works out, I might actually become an uncle?”

“COOP!” Jack hissed.

“Hey, just sayin’… She’s young enough to become a mother, you’re still able to reproduce…”

“Coop…” Jack repeated, thankful that the conversation was per phone and not in person. Cooper would have teased him endlessly for the red tint that took over his cheeks.

“Come on boss… You know you’d be the best father there ever was!”

“I would probably find a way to screw it up either way, -I always do…”

“You didn’t screw up our squad…”

“That’s because we were generally screwed up already…” Jack chuckled, “Now, how’s the team doing?”

“Just got a new assignment…”

“-And?”

“I’ve got a bad feeling ‘bout this one boss…” Cooper admitted, his voice no longer holding the same spark.

“Okay…?”

“It’s been silent over here. Literally nothing to do for almost a month.”

“That’s never a good sign…” Jack agreed, it wasn’t really superstition either. It was a tried and tested fact. If there was a long stretch of nothing to do, someone was planning something big. Either their side, or the other one, -or the universe itself.

“My gut is telling me that we will need MEDEVAC, and that our radios will fail exactly two minutes before the need arrives.”

“That was specific…”

“But you know the feeling, right?”

“Yeah, I do…” Jack sighed, it had happened too many times to count during his long, action-packed career. “Hope they didn’t call the op easy too, just to fuck you guys up…”

“They did use that word…”

“Good luck buddy…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Cooper sighed and looked at the improvised table where the plans for the next mission laid. He had gone over them with Duncan first, in private, then with the rest of the squad.

He didn’t like this. Not at all. It already felt like they were headed into an ambush. _If your attack is going well, you’re walking into an ambush._ Another one of Murphy’s laws of combat. Tried and tested, never failed. Same thing went for when your superior said something along the lines of ‘ _It should be easy to advance…’_ That too usually meant an ambush was coming for you.

Oh how he wished that good ol’ Jack could be there with him. Guide him through these difficult things.

“Jack…”

“Yeah?”

“Ever thought about coming back?”

There was a long silence on the other end, but Cooper didn’t feel uneasy because of it. There was no chance he would have offended Jack by asking that question either way.

“If they would let me, I would…” Jack finally sighed, “But turns out, they don’t want old washed up rodeo-riders with bad joints and even worse attitude…”

“Come on, you don’t have a bad attitude…”

“-Have you ever been my boss?”

“No…”

“Well, then you haven’t met that attitude…” Jack chuckled.

“Speaking of bad joints, how is the leg? It was the leg you had injured right?”

“Oh, yeah… It’s good, well… At least it’s not the worst…”

Cooper nodded as he picked up a knife from the crate-turned-table. “Didn’t expect it to be… But you are expected to get back in the game?”

“Yes, I fully intend to get back out there…”

“Good…” Cooper nodded, “I’m glad to hear that… By the way, even though you’re injured, it was good to hear that you weren’t part of that operation in China…”

“Yeah, never good when something covert ends up on the news, huh…” Jack sighed. “Guess a messed up leg is better than that option…”

“Yeah, me and the boys… -The ones who were here before you left at least, maybe even the FNGs (Fucking New Guys). We got a bit anxious when we heard about it. I figured you still could be considered an immortal, but… You never know, now do you?”

“Aww… You were worried about me?” Jack half teased.

“Yeah… ‘Bout you and Mac…” Cooper admitted. “We hear talk like that, we automatically switch on our phones and read up on it. Then we worry…”

“Hey… Ain’t nothing going to happen to me…” Jack tried in a light tone, “And if anyone even considers coming close to the kid, they are gonna have to answer to me first!”

“I thought so boss…” Coop relaxed a bit, even though he knew that Jack couldn’t, without a doubt, promise what he was saying.

“-Hey man… Hang on for a few seconds, I’ve got to take a seat…” Jack grumbled as he pushed himself off the railing and grabbed a hold of his crutches with his right hand. “Just a moment…”

“Okay…” Cooper nodded, suddenly realizing the labored breathing he had been listening to for 42 minutes already. He felt guilty for not realizing that one of his best buddies had struggled with pain for all of that time.

He heard some scratchy noises, followed by ten seconds of semi-silence, then the scratchy noises came back on followed by Jack’s voice. “Okay, done… So… FNG’s… Do they look promising?”

“Well, compared to the rest of the squad, they look like monkeys trying to figure out how to use a shovel…” Coop sighed, “But something tells me we all looked like that when we were fresh-faced noobs…”

“You did…” Jack laughed, “Even you. But trust me, as long as they find their place within the group and get confident with your friendship… The skills will emerge after a while. Those guys were handpicked in one way or another, they’re just new…”

“Thanks…” Cooper let out a breath of relief, “Gets my hopes up at least a bit. Might happen that we turn them into real Delta’s in a while…”

“You will, I have no doubt about it.”

Cooper smiled, a vote of confidence from his former boss was a big thing these days. Especially when your former boss was freaking Jack Wyatt Dalton.

He looked at his wristwatch, they had spent 45 minutes talking on the phone, and what passed for lunch was about to be served. “Hey, uhmmm… It was good talking to you, good to hear that you’re doing alright. And try to reel that girl in, she sounds super. I’m totally going to get one of the new guys to find her on Facebook for me, it was Michelle Sawyer or something right?”

“Yeah…” Jack chuckled, he already knew Coop would do something just like that.

“Heal up and take care of yourself! I’ll take a trip next time I have leave.”

“Sounds great, bet Mac misses you as much as I do.”

Cooper grinned but something was stinging in his eyes.

“Lunch ETA is 5 mikes, so I kinda have to head out. You know, if I don’t want old rubber soles on my toast…”

Jack laughed, “Come on, food’s not that bad!”

“No, it’s not…” Cooper admitted.

“Alright, take care. Say hi to the other meatheads, and kick ass during that operation you’re heading into.” Jack smiled, “When in doubt, just ditch the guns and send something ‘to whom it may concern…’”

“Grenades or air-strike?”

“Whatever feels handy…” Jack chuckled.

“Alright. Take care!”

“You too, brother…” Jack repeated.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle was still awake when Jack hobbled inside almost 50 minutes after he had gone out to talk on the phone.

“Good talk?”

Jack nodded as he headed for the bathroom. “Talked a little about everything… Sorry it took a while…”

“Wouldn’t expect any less…” Michelle smiled back just before Jack closed the door.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Now, come lay down here…”

Jack smiled and hobbled over to the opposite side of the bed. He stripped off his jeans fist, then he sat down on the bed with the hem of his shirt in his hands. After a few seconds of him not moving Michelle spoke up again.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s just…” Jack let his shoulders slump a little bit, he wasn’t quite sure of what to say. “I don’t wanna scare you, but I realize…”

He fell silent, still with the hem of his shirt in his hands.

“What?”

“I realize that I might if I take off my shirt…”

“And why would that scare me?” Michelle asked, sitting up straight in the bed.

“Scars. I’ve got a lot of them…”

“I’m sure I could love them…” Michelle said as she crawled closer to see Jack’s face. “Because they’re a part of you…”

A faint smirk tugged at Jack’s lips, “Some of them are pretty gnarly…”

“I don’t care, won’t scare me anyway!” Michelle concluded.

“Okay…” Jack nodded, “I trust you on that one…”

He pulled off his t-shirt too, revealing all sorts of old battle-wounds. Then he waited.

“Okay… What do you think…?”

“I think you should stop worrying, and get some rest…” Michelle chuckled, “And don’t be scared of showing me your scars…”

Jack let out a nervous laugh, “Okay…”

Michelle nodded, as she laid herself down on the right side of the bed. “And don’t even think about taking the couch or the floor unless it is a coping mechanism. If I should move around too much in my sleep and cause you pain, kick me out of the bed instead. Okay?”

Jack rolled over on his side looking at her, before he nodded. “Okay ma’am…”

**Okay. Messy chapter… Sorry…**

**I once had a plan for how the phone call was supposed to go. But as I started writing it that plan got shot to hell with a mortar… I think…**

**  
**


	9. Chapter 9

 

**Hello and thanks for all the reviews and comments! Favs and follows! Thanks guys!**

 

Jack couldn’t understand anything when he woke up. Even though it was right after memorial day, he had had the best sleep he could remember. It wasn’t all that much of a stretch to say it had been years since the last time he had been granted rest this peaceful. And to sleep like that the day after memorial day? Usually the week after any one of the military holidays consisted of one nightmare after the other.

He blinked a few times at the ceiling, and looked over towards his right, Michelle was still sleeping. She was on her stomach, her right arm splayed out over the mattress, her hand resting on top of his forearm.

He stayed like that until she woke up too, half an hour later.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Good morning…” she half muttered, half smiled, before she really woke up. She was still squinting against the sun coming in through the curtains.

“Good morning.” Jack smiled back. She was cute like this. Her hair was a mess, and she was fighting off those slightly sleepy grimaces, but she was still one of the most beautiful people Jack had ever laid eyes on. Not a bombshell beauty, but the just the kind of normal, beautiful girl you should end up with. The one that would ultimately wreck your heart if she ever left.

“You a morning person?” she winced as her head fell back onto the pillow, she obviously wasn’t.

“Not really…” Jack chuckled, “But I woke up a little while ago. Had time to adjust…”

She nodded into the pillow. “Sorry, I look like a troll when I first wake up.”

“Relax, we all do…” Jack chuckled.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

15 minutes later they hadn’t moved, but Michelle was much more awake than earlier.

In unspoken agreement she had crawled closer, he had wrapped his arm around her, and now she had her head rested on his right shoulder and her arm draped across his waist.

It felt good. It felt like that one thing that had been missing for a really long time. A safe haven, a home.

Jack couldn’t help but lean his nose up against her hair, to smell the sweet perfume-like smell of her shampoo. It smelled like some kind of flower, sweet and fresh. –Intoxicating. He could have stayed like that forever.

Her fingers were busy stroking back and forth over his 6th and 7th rib on the left side. Jack didn’t have to look to know that her fingers had found a patch of scar-tissue, and/or the callouses on the bones underneath.

He pulled her even closer in a one-armed hug, placing a kiss on top of her head.

“Jack…”

He nodded, knowing she would register it.

“What’d you get this from?”

“Bullet.” He shrugged.

She nodded.

“Turned out my vest wasn’t as bullet proof as it could have been, but it stopped fairly quickly after.”

She nodded again, and her long, curly hair tickled against him.

There was a little stretch of silence before she asked another question. “Does it bother you that I ask?”

Jack shook his head, “-no…”

She nodded again, and Jack had to concentrate not to flinch away from the tickling sensation.

“And this one?” she asked after a while, her hand placed a little south and a little right of his belly button.

Jack grimaced as he thought back, “I’m not sure you want to know that one…”

“Okay. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to…” she was quick to respond.

“No, it’s not that…” Jack assured her, “It’s just… Story behind that one is pretty nasty… But I could tell you how I got it…”

She nodded again, as she let her right leg brush against his.

“Well…” Jack took a deep breath, steeling himself for the story. “It was back in ’05 or ’06 I think. Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, don’t really remember… All that turned into some kinda blur…”

Her hand was still resting on top of the gnarly scar. The main one was about five inches long, curving slightly downward again on the top closest to his hip. The pale area was almost an inch wide at the most, a soft crater against surrounding tan skin.

“One thing I remember is that we were far from our base. A guy on another squad set off a tripwire… It went Ka-Boom…”

“Shrapnel?” she asked as her thumb brushed over the area.

“No… Well… -kinda…” Jack grimaced, “It was organic…”

She removed her hand as she angled her head to look up at him. “What?”

“The other guy, he went everywhere…” Jack frowned, “I caught a piece of his jaw.”

“-Ouch…” Michelle winced in sympathy for both Jack and the other guy, before she let her hand travel back to the first scar.

Jack couldn’t help but feel like the story had grossed her out. It probably had, it had to.

“Like I said, yucky story…”

Michelle nodded, but didn’t say anything for almost a full minute. “You said you were far from your base…”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, over 150 kilometers… Thankfully MEDEVAC was close by.”

Michelle nodded again. “Must’ve been a good combat medic who dealt with that one…”

“Yeah, Pete… He’s one of the best, sometimes the most annoying, but still one of the best.”

“One of the most annoying?”

“Yeah…” Jack chuckled. “Let’s say I got a little hurt, fractured wrist or something. I would think I could go on, he would not agree…”

“Wise man, I guess…”

“What? You’re taking his side?” Jack feigned shock.

Michelle relaxed and nodded. “I would have agreed.”

“Come on, I could still pull the trigger, I was good to go back out there…”

Michelle laughed, “I’m hoping you’re talking about that wrist now, or are you Superman?”

“Yeah, it was the wrist…” Jack agreed, “On the trip back to our base when I got that scar on the other hand, my gut was held together by duct-tape… I wasn’t up for combat for a good while…”

Michelle nodded, “I would have been worried if you were…”

 

**Okay, hope you’re enjoying this still. Hope you still find it kinda interesting. Hope I’m not totally Mary-Sue’ing her. I try to avoid it, not easy… Not easy at all… (I mean, try to write an OC you want EVERYONE to like, without turning her into a flat piece of cardboard…) I might have a couple of things for Jack to discover about her as time passes, but it’s not like it would be the first things he would pick up on… Oh lawwwwddd… I’m in a deep mess!**

**THIS IS WHY I LOVE MY WHUMP TRAINING-WHEELS!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again! Just me, you know…**

 

They laid like that for a long while, hugging each other close. Finally Jack’s stomach figured out it was time for breakfast, announcing such with a loud growl.

“Hungry soldier?” Michelle whispered in Jack’s ear.

“Yeah, guess I am…” he chuckled, letting his left hand rub over his tummy.

“There’s an IHOP just behind the motel…” Michelle shrugged, I could run over and get something to-go…”

Jack shrugged, “Or we could both walk over there and eat…”

“You up for that?”

“Sure…” Jack nodded, “I’ve gotten plenty of rest.”

“Okay…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle stopped as they rounded the second corner of the motel. They were more than halfway to the entrance of the IHOP, but she seriously thought about stopping Jack and offer to go get her car so they could drive the last 50 yards.

“You doing okay there tough guy?” she finally asked, her eyes locked on the thin sheen of sweat covering Jack’s forehead.

“Yeah… I’m fine.” Jack lied, he was already out of breath and his leg was throbbing like crazy.

“Fine never means that you’re doing okay…” Michelle sighed, “It’s rather the opposite. When you’re doing _fine_ you’re either in physical or emotional pain. Or both. So which one is it?”

Jack sighed and let his shoulders slump down a bit. “Leg’s aching…”

“Want me to get the car, I could drive you the last stretch…”

Jack shook his head, “No, we’re basically there already.”

Michelle shrugged, then nodded. “Okay, but when we’re about to leave, let me just run ahead and get the car, Okay?”

“That won’t be necessary…”

“You sure?”

“Yeah… Took a few pills just before we left…” Jack admitted, “They just haven’t kicked in yet…”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get the car?”

Jack nodded, “Positive. But if we could just take a breather here for a couple more seconds, that would be awesome.”

“Of course…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple minutes later, they stepped into the diner. They were met by a stocky blonde with an apron.

“Welcome to… Hi Ella!” the blonde beamed, “I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Hi Raelynn…” Michelle smiled back, “It’s been too long… You’re right. Could you find a table for us?”

“For you two?” Michelle nodded while Raelynn looked Jack up and down. “And who might this be?”

Jack was left gaping like a fish, he wasn’t sure what to answer. He hadn’t been prepared for the question either.

“Jack is a guy I’m seeing.” Michelle answered for them after a couple of seconds.

“Good for you.” Raelynn smiled at Michelle before she turned towards Jack. “Jack, this one is a keeper. I’m telling ya!”

“I’m starting to understand that…” Jack smiled, his cheeks changing color as his eyes flicked over towards Michelle.

“This way…” Raelynn smiled as she grabbed two menus and lead them towards a table.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

As Raelynn headed back to grab a cup of coffee for both Jack and Michelle, she turned and mouthed ‘He’s handsome!’ towards Michelle, who in her turn smiled and nodded agreement.

**Short chapter, I know…**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello friends. Hope you are doing good…**

**Seriously starting to regret once telling someone I would become a writer ‘but only if all else fails…’ Cause it seems like everything just decided to go to shit after that. This last illusion too… FML…**

 

“So… How long are you staying for?” Michelle asked as she sipped her coffee.

“Well, I was supposed to head back to LA tomorrow…” Jack shrugged, “But I’ve been thinking about calling my boss, to tell her that I’ll stay a few more days. I’m on medical leave either way…”

“I’d like that…”

“Me too…” Jack admitted as the waitress came back with the breakfast plates.

“Here you go, two 2x2x2’s” Raelynn smiled as she set the plates down. “If there is anything else you should need, just let me know…”

“Thank you…” Jack smiled and picked up his knife and fork, “Looks good!”

“Thank you, Rae…” Michelle grinned just before Raelynn turned to go back to her chores.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Where in LA do you live?” Michelle asked after a little while.

“Jefferson Park. I bought a tired, run down house there when I first moved to Los Angeles. Fixed it up little by little. Now it’s pretty decent…” Jack explained proudly, “Honestly, I often question why I didn’t just buy a small apartment instead. I mean, sure… It’s awesome to have a bedroom or two extra when Mac or Riley needs to stay over, but it’s just me there usually. And then there’s the _‘business trips’_ and all that.”

“Too much house?”

“Maybe a little too much for just one person…” Jack nodded. “And you, 40 minutes or so away from here?”

Michelle nodded. “Just a little house and a shack to park inside. I never planned on staying…”

“You never planned on staying?”

“That was almost 10 years ago…” Michelle laughed as she finished up the last of her pancakes. “I would live near my hometown for a little while. A year, two tops… Then I would go out and see the world, work all across the US, maybe volunteer for doctors without borders or something… I wasn’t going to plant roots at least…”

“Could still happen…” Jack winked, taking another sip of his coffee.

“Nah… A miracle would have to happen first…”

“Could happen…”

“Doubt it…” Michelle sighed, “I would love it, but I doubt it will ever happen…”

Jack nodded.

“And you? You have certainly seen the world…” Michelle said as sha tilted her head. “How is it?”

“Texas is still stuck in my heart…”

“Ever met a Texan who doesn’t LOVE Texas?” Michelle chuckled.

Jack shook his head, “Don’t think I have…”

“Same…” Michelle grinned, “But how is the rest of the world?”

“Loud. Dirty. Rough. Sometimes scary…” Jack shrugged, “But other parts of the world are beautiful, rich of life… Worth seeing…”

“If you could go back to when you enlisted?”

“I’d do it all again, in a heartbeat.” Jack admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck, before he repeated himself. “I’d do it all again…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

They stayed at the café for a good while after finishing up their breakfasts. After a couple of refills of coffee, Jack looked up at Michelle. “Maybe we should get going?”

“Are you getting tired?”

Jack shook his head, “No, but if I want to hang around town for a few more days, I better call Matty and have her re-schedule my flight…”

“So you’re staying?”

“As long as my boss doesn’t go all Matty-the-hun over the request… -Yes.” Jack couldn’t help but smile when he saw Michelle’s face light up.

“Hope she lets you…”

“She will, I’m pretty sure…” Jack smirked, “If not, it wouldn’t be the first time I skipped out on an exfil…”

“Huh?”

“Long story, boring actually. Another day?”

“Okay…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The walk back to the motel room went a lot smoother than the trip to the IHOP. They didn’t have to stop to let Jack catch his breath, and his leg didn’t feel like it was about to fall off. Much thanks to the painkillers which had kicked in a good while ago.

“So… One thing…” Michelle started, obviously nervous.

Jack stopped dead in his tracks and nodded.

“You said you kinda still were a soldier…” she paused for a few seconds, “What does that mean?”

Jack didn’t say anything straight away. His eyes fell to the ground, then he shuffled over to the ice chest standing up against the motel wall. He leaned up against it.

“It means…” Jack sighed, “It means… It means I still work for the government. Still get shot at, a lot… Still get ops or missions to go on. I don’t have any flags assaulting forward on my arm, I don’t get any medals or stuff, cause that shit is just expected of me… But I protect people who need protection…”

“But you’re one of the good guys, right?” Michelle asked with a wink, not really doubting what answer she would get.

“Yeah, I am… At least I try to be…”

Michelle nodded. “So the business trips you mentioned…?”

“Missions.” Jack admitted.

 

**Okay, I better get some sleep… Good night…**

**  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Back at it again. BOOM!**

 

“So… Is your dad stepping in for you at the bar tonight too?” Jack asked quite hopefully as he lifted his leg up on the couch with him.

“No…” Michelle sighed as she leaned on the wall beside the door. “I’m not that lucky…”

“What’s your stand on customers who spend all night nursing on one beer and a shitload of coffee?”

“Love them…”

“I’ll be by a little later then…” Jack winked, “Just a few things I need to sort out first…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“So you’re not up for a ride back to California, huh?” Matty asked.

“No, an hour plus in a car to get to the airport and almost three hours in a plane sounds like some form of torture…”

“So it has nothing to do with that lady Mac told me you hung around with?”

Jack hadn’t expected that and almost dropped his phone because of the shock. “He told you?!?!”

“He might have given me a heads up on the matter…” Matty informed.

“How? What?” Jack almost stuttered, “What did he say?”

“Nothing much. Told me you had a woman over late, and that she stayed to the next morning…” Matty revealed.

“He told you?” Jack asked once more, he really couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

“Yeah, shouldn’t he?”

Jack shrugged to himself. “No problem, but how could he know?”

“It’s Mac we’re talking about… The guy can figure out just about everything. You really shouldn’t be surprised that he figured out that you had a visitor last night…”

“Guess you have a point there…” Jack nodded. “But okay… Do you mind if I stay here for a little while?”

“No, just tell me when you want to get back to the west coast and I’ll book the flight. But you will have to fly commercial, okay?”

“Sure…”

“So, when do you want to get back home?”

“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment the 14th… So I’ve got to be back by then…”

“So the 13th then?”

“Sounds good.” Jack nodded, “Hope you’re not mad…”

“Mad? Why on earth would I be mad?” Matty chuckled, “Have fun, Jack… See you in a couple of weeks…”

“Thanks Matty…”

“Hey, don’t do anything I wouldn’t have done, okay?”

Jack harrumphed, “Well, not many restrictions then…”

“Correct!” Matty laughed.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The first person Jack met when her stepped outside the motel room door was Mac. The younger agent was about to unlock his own door.

“Hi there…” the blond smirked, turning towards the older one. “Did you have fun last night?”

Jack knew there were no way to wiggle past the question. “Yes.”

“Michelle, was it?”

“How’d you…?”

“When she brought you home…”

“But you were asleep!”

“No, I just acted like I was…” Mac grinned, “Is she nice?”

Jack nodded eagerly, “If you tag along you’ll get to meet her…”

Mac shrugged, “Now?”

Jack nodded.

“Can I text you later? I need to get ready to leave tomorrow… Matty told me you said you wanted to stick around for a little while…”

“Yeah… You know… Leg’s been acting up a lot lately…” Jack shrugged, even though both of them knew that wasn’t the main reason.

Mac acted like he couldn’t see straight through Jack’s little white lie, “Okay, hope it feels better soon… But don’t rush yourself…”

Jack nodded, “I’ll hear from you later then?”

“Sure thing…”

**Okay… See y’all later!**

**  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**This fucking week just keeps getting better… Today I almost felt like the universe had paid for a hit on me, the assumed hitman was a 20 foot ladder. I had about 14-15 feet worth of height BELOW my feet when the sucker decided to slip!**

**Relax. I’m alive… OBVIOUSLY!  
Got some pretty serious bruising, took X-rays and an Ultrasound scan,  no fractures, no internal damage, one sprained ankle… Still no fear of heights, but a strengthened distrust in double ladders (is that the right thing to call it? You know, the ladders where you link one part to another and it gets taller? I just translated it directly from Norwegian. Maybe it has another name in English?) **

**Almost gave my co-worker a heart attack… I’m not gonna lie, I cried! Not because of pain (thanks to adrenalin I didn’t feel all the bumps and bruises before an hour or so had passed), but have you ever just dropped more than twice your height? It’s a shock!**

**Yep… FYI, the ladder broke. My arm on the other hand just got a bump and a bruise the size of freaking TEXAS!**

 

“One beer, please…” Jack grinned as he hobbled over to the counter.

“Coming straight up!” Michelle winked, “Bud or Corona?”

“Corona!” Jack smiled as he lifted himself onto the barstool and placed his left leg on the stool by his side.

Michelle looked him over as she tapped the beer, “So, staying for a little while or not?”

“Staying…” Jack answered as he leaned on the counter, “She even told me to have fun…”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that.” Michelle chuckled and blew him a kiss.

“Hey-hey-hey!” Jack held up both hands signing for her to stall a bit, “I’m not up for too much fun, just remember that!”

“Oh, relax…” Michelle grinned, “We don’t have to get physical…”

Jack smirked.

“-But we could, if you’re up for it…” Michelle added after a little while. Then she hoisted herself up on the counter and pulled Jack in for a kiss.

Jack sure as hell didn’t pull back, once he recovered from the initial shock, he leaned into it.

Endorphins rushing through his bloodstream, his pulse picking up and the lust for more blooming inside him.

He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointment when she pulled away after a few seconds.

“Thank you…” he whispered, still in awe.

“Just did what I wanted…” Michelle smiled, “Hope you’ll be ready for more of that later…”

Jack nodded, licking his lips.

“Good…” Michelle smiled, before they were disturbed by another customer.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple of hours later, Mac strolled into the bar. He had texted with Jack to get to know where to meet the older man.

He looked around the place and found Jack fairly easily. Then he noticed the woman behind the bar who Jack was chatting with. Proving once again that Jack didn’t have one type he fell for.

This one looked nothing like Sara or Diane, or any of the other women Mac had been introduced to during his years of knowing Jack.

He headed over, nodding to the bartender and greeting Jack.

“Can I get you anything?” the bartender asked, and Mac recognized the voice instantly.

“Whatever he has, please.” Mac answered as he jabbed a thumb towards Jack and his beer.

Michelle nodded, tapping the beer.

“Mac, this is Michelle. Michelle, this is Mac. The guy who fell asleep on my couch…” Jack introduced them to each other.

Michelle chuckled and extended her hand towards Mac right after she had given him his beer. “Nice to meet you. From what I hear, you are quite the guy…”

Mac blushed as he shook Michelle’s hand, “Well, I could tell Jack was into you. Now I know why!”

Now it was Michelle’s turn to blush and look over at Jack.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple of hours later, Mac had had a few more beers, but Jack had switched over to coffee.

“Michelle, I have to say; this bar looks exactly like bars do in 80’s movies. Just, maybe a little upgraded and a lot cleaner…” Mac mused peering out over the crowd.

“Well, it’s been around since the 70’s, we’ve tried to keep things in working order… But we’ve also tried to keep it true to what it was…”

“It works. You feel instantly at home here…” Mac shrugged.

“Mac, that’s not because of the bar… That’s because of the person behind it…” Jack explained, just like any other time he was ‘sharing a little bit of Jack’s infinite wisdom’.

Mac shrugged, “I guess you’re right.”

**Okay… Between the crappy day/Week I’ve had and the late hour here, I kinda have to go to bed. And y’all know me, I can’t have stuff laying around on my computer… So I’ll just post this as it is…**

**  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you all so much for the concern. I’ll bounce back, I know I will. Just need some much deserved R &R at the moment… **

Jack sat by the counter, one hand wrapped around the coffee mug, the other kneading his left thigh. Time passed and about an hour ago Mac had figured he needed to get back to the motel room if he wanted to get up in time to drive back to the nearest airport to get picked up by the company jet.

“How’re you holding up?” Michelle asked as she got back from serving some guy a large plate of nachos. “You look a little beat…”

“I’m good, just my thigh cramping a little.” Jack pulled a slight grimace, “I’m kinda surprised it manages to cramp up, I mean… Sure doesn’t look like there are any muscles left there to cramp up…”

Michelle chuckled at Jack’s innocent and slightly confused expression.

“Sure you don’t want to sit at one of the booths instead?”

Jack nodded, “No problem sitting here…”

“Okay. But don’t blame me if your leg gets worse…” Michelle shrugged as she poured herself another coffee.

“I would never…”

“I didn’t really think you would…” Michelle chuckled, “But I think it would be better for you and your leg to sit on one of the couches instead…”

“That might be, but it’s much more fun to sit here…” Jack shrugged back.

“I could sit down with you, you know… Sometimes I almost believe I’m just here for show…” Michelle said as she rolled her eyes dramatically. “You saw that these folks are completely able to serve themselves… I don’t necessarily like that, but it’s practical sometimes… I could join you at the booth…”

Jack looked over to the closest booth, it was a tempting offer. He had to admit to such, but then again…

“Nah… It can wait. Besides, from here I get to see the whole place at once…” All his years as both a soldier and an agent had left him with the preference for a good vantage point and his back to the wall. Where he could see everyone and no one could sneak up from behind.

“There’s really not so much to look at here…” Michelle sighed, “Just a bunch of drunk lonely dudes, talking about their glory days. For most of these guys that was more than 15 years ago… For some it’s even 50 years ago…”

Jack smirked, he had already scanned the patrons and placed them with their own stereotypes. Stereotypes are for a reason, no matter how cruel or judging that might sound. He had found the loud ex-jocks, the ones who wished they were still out there playing football or whatever game they had been good at. He had found the unsuccessful ladies men, the ones who always tried to get some poor woman to bed, but never lucked out because they sounded too sleazy. He had spotted a few guys he had pegged as ex-military, a quiet bunch of a few good ol’ boys tucked away in a corner. They still had a standard haircut and sat in a semi-circle with their backs towards the corner behind them. Much like Jack did himself. And then there were the plain drunkards…

“Still fascinating to look at, but to be honest, you are who I look at the most…” Jack smirked.

“Well, you could still look at me from the booth…” Michelle said, tilting her head towards the booth.

“But here I can sit and talk to you all night, without really getting in the way of your work…” Jack debated, before he winked and added “And I can reach the coffee pot myself…”

He chose to look past the fact that his leg had started to throb rhythmically and that his ass had fallen asleep half an hour ago. Michelle didn’t need to know that.

“You’re stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Was born that way, can’t help it…” Jack flashed a bright grin, and Michelle blushed. “…What?”

“You’re just so…” Michelle had to take a couple of seconds to compose herself, “You’re just so damn cute…”

“You think I’m cute?” Jack asked, wagging his eyebrows flirtingly.

“Stop it!” Michelle giggled and was forced to look away. She covered her face with her right hand as she leaned on the counter with her left. “Stop it… I can’t…”

She let out a little laugh, before she steeled herself to look at Jack once again. It failed, and she had to look over towards the neon-sign in the back advertising Coors light.

“I can’t handle you… You’re just… You’re just too…” She had to pause to search for her words, “Too perfect. Okay? And I can’t function when you turn that up to eleven, okay?”

“Okay? –I’ll stop…?” Jack offered.

“But I don’t want you to stop either…” Michelle mused as she scrounged up her nose. She chuckled nervously, “Just try not to put me out of commission with that smile, at least not when I’m behind this bar…”

“Okay, I’ll try to behave…” Jack answered with a wink.

Michelle blushed and shook her head, “You’re not even trying, are you?”

“Nope…” Jack answered honestly and lifted his coffee to his lips. “I’m not…”

Michelle shook her head as she chuckled to herself, then she leaned over the counter and placed a kiss on his forehead.

“Well, guess I’m in for a lot of trouble then…” she sighed, flashing a heart stopping smile of her own, causing Jack to almost choke on his coffee.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Hey, Mich…” old Bobby Roland spoke up and waved her over to the regular table as she finished up cleaning one of the tables close to the corner.

“Who’s that new guy?”

“A friend…” Michelle blushed.

“Looks like more than a friend…” Connor who sat beside Bobby said, jabbing his elbow at Bobby.

Michelle nodded.

“Isn’t he a little old for ya, kid?” Bobby asked, mild concern in his voice.

“No. He isn’t…” Michelle laughed, she knew that Bobby and the other guys at that particular table only had her best intentions in mind. “He’s older than me, sure… But not too old…”

Bobby nodded.

“He military?” John asked, angling his head to get a better look at Jack.

“Yes.” Michelle nodded.

“Why don’t you invite him over here?” Bobby asked, moving his hand in a ‘come here’ motion.

“I don’t know…” Michelle shrugged, “His leg is really bothering him, I don’t think he’d like to move around too much…”

“His leg?” Connor asked, hoping for an explanation.

“He broke it a couple of weeks ago, I guess it is still really painful.”

“A couple of weeks ago, shouldn’t it be almost pain-free by now?” Jared asked, before he quickly was silenced by Cooper’s elbow connecting with his ribs.

“That all depends on what, where, which and how!” Cooper whispered menacingly, “Hank broke his leg 20 years ago, still sports a limp!”

Hank, who sat on the right-hand end of the semi-circle nodded, “Yeah, still do…”

“Okay, okay…” Jared nodded, holding up his hands in surrender, “Didn’t think that one through…”

“But Mich…” Bobby started, crossing his arms over his chest, “Why don’t you tell him that there’s a seat free for him at our table next time he’s up and about already…? Like, if he already needs to take a piss, our table is closer to the restroom than the counter.”

Michelle shook her head, “Okay, I’ll tell him. But you guys play nice to him. I like this one…”

“Yes ma’am!” all of them answered in unison.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“What’d they say?” Jack asked once Michelle made it back to the counter. He had seen her talking to the bunch he had figured had to be old military men, and had seen them all looking at him and gesturing towards him.

“Oh, they just wondered who you were. And told me to tell you that you could sit with them if you’d like…” Michelle smiled, “I think you’d all have a lot to talk about…”

“Yeah, I bet…” Jack chuckled, “Maybe I will…”

Then he went to move, but his action was cut short by another grimace. “-Maybe a bit later…”

Michelle winced in sympathy before she nodded, “I think the offer stands for whenever you’re already on the move…”

Jack nodded as he fought to control his facial expression. “Good.”

**Okay, hope I didn’t disappoint you with this chapter either.**

**I can imagine that being flirted with by Jack leaves you in a pretty much useless state. I sure as hell wouldn’t function. –At all.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello lovelies!**

After he zipped up and washed his hands, he hobbled outside to the bar again. He scanned the room, again, and decided to hop over to the table he had been invited to.

“Hey fellas…” Jack nodded as he came closer. He was relieved to see that they had already set out not one, but two chairs for him.

“Hey son…” the oldest looking dude nodded, “Sit down, kick your leg up…”

The 70-something year old man with a trucker cap didn’t have to ask him twice, his leg was not agreeing with him. –At all…

“Thank you…” Jack smiled as he lowered himself onto the seat. He couldn’t stop the slight groan that left him as he went down the last couple of inches.

“What’d you do to that leg, boy?” the one closest to Jack asked. He was most likely the second youngest of the group. Just about Jack’s own age.

“-Broke it. Took a bad landing.” Jack explained as he helped his left leg up onto the chair in front of him.

“What’s your name, kid?” the oldest one asked.

Jack let out a light laugh. He was 50, being called ‘kid’ wasn’t usual for him. But he would take it from a man who looked like he was maybe 75 years old, and who looked like he had been around the world a couple of times on his own.

“Jack. Jack Dalton…”

“Jack Dalton?” The man repeated. “I knew a guy once, Air Force pilot. Never really had the patience to sit still for long, but hell of a pilot. Could fly a C-130 like it was a freaking trick plane.”

Jack couldn’t help but break into a giant grin. “Only person that could be is my dad…”

“Scared me halfway to death at least once or twice, but saved my life a shitload of times…” the man with the trucker cap nodded with a stiff expression. “I heard he passed a few years ago… The world lost a great man that day…”

Jack had to bite down on his cheek to avoid tearing up. “Yeah… He was one to remember…”

“-And a little bit crazy…” The trucker cap added. “But that’s just what you need sometimes… Hell of a man… -I’m Robert Roland, everyone calls me Bobby.”

“Nice to meet you Bobby!” Jack smiled.

“This here is Hank, the man to my left is Connor. Then we’ve got the three youngest ones, Jared, Jason and Luke.” Bobby ratted off, gesturing to each of the other men in turn, “As you might have guessed, Connor and Luke here are brothers. Just, is it eleven years between the two of you?”

Both Connor and Luke nodded.

Jack nodded, he could see the resemblance. Connor looked like an older, more weathered version of Luke. Same strong jaw, same chiseled features, just more worn and maybe a little more tired.

“So, son…” Bobby asked, leaning his elbows on the table. “Did you follow in your daddy’s footsteps? Did you go into the air force?”

Jack shook his head, “Not exactly. -I joined the army…”

“The army?” Hank on the opposite end repeated, “Bobby, I approve of this kid.”

“Kid?” Jack chuckled, “Nobody has called me that in a couple of decades…”

“Just get used to it…” Luke sighed, “As long as you don’t surpass these old geezers in age, you will be called kid, kiddo, son or boy…”

“Relax little brother…” Connor grinned, “Maybe we’ll stop calling you kiddo when you turn 55…”

“Well, I’ll believe that when it happens… Not a second before…”

Connor winked at his little brother, the youngest of the two looked to be about Jack’s age, give or take a few.

“Well, we’re an odd bunch here…” Connor chuckled as he looked at Jack, “We’ve Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy.”

“And we never agree who’s the best…” Luke chuckled, “Some of these guys don’t get that it obviously is the army which is the best…”

Jack smiled, Hank nodded, while the rest of the gang shook their heads.

“No… The air force is the best…” Bobby grinned.

“Us marines would easily mow both of you off the map, completely…” Jared interrupted as Connor nodded along to his statement.

“No, Navy would win. Easily…” Jason shook his head, dismissing the other guys’ opinions.

“Agree to disagree?” Bobby finally offered. The rest of the guys, Jack included, nodded.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A few hours later, Jack had really melted seamlessly into the group. It was like he belonged there, like they were all old buddies.

He was really surprised when Michelle finally came over and reminded the men that she was about to close up the place.

“Already?” Jack asked, looking up at her.

“Sun’s about to rise…” Michelle laughed, “I figure you seven hit it off…”

“Yeah, we did…” Bobby nodded approvingly. “Jack seems like a good kid.”

“Good to hear y’all are getting along nicely.” Michelle giggled, “Jack, I’ve just got to clean up. Okay?”

Jack nodded, and leaned his head back to look up at her. Before she headed back to the counter to wash over it, she placed a quick pec on his forehead. Jack managed to wrap an arm around the back of her neck, trapping her just long enough to place a kiss of his own on her lips.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Alright, Jack… Hope we’ll see you again soon!” Hank nodded as he got up and prepared to limp away. “You always have a spot here with us, you know…”

“Thanks man…” Jack smiled.

**Okay, so… I know this chapter might seem a little dry and boring. –Sorry for that.**

**  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey again. Hope you’re having a great day!**

 

Michelle only needed to take one look at Jack when they made it back to her place to know that sitting by the bar most of the evening hadn’t done his leg any favors.

They had agreed on heading over to her place early on. She needed to grab a new set of clothes and that way she could make them both breakfast when they got up in the morning, or afternoon.

His shoulders were tense as steel, his knuckles were white where he gripped the crutches. Exhaustion was carved deep on his face. He looked like he was dead on his feet, foot.

“How are you doing, honey?” Michelle asked as she hung her keys on the knob she usually had them.

“Yeah. Fine.” Jack gritted out through clenched teeth.

Michelle winced at the strain she detected in Jack’s voice. Detect wasn’t really the word to use, there was no ‘detecting’. It was loud and clear, and you would have to be deaf to miss it.

“My room is up the stairs and to the left, bath is on the right hand side…” Michelle murmured, something in Jack’s voice told her that he wasn’t up for talk about whether his leg hurt or not. It obviously did anyway.

“Thanks.” Jack bit out as he started climbing up the stairs.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack could hear how he sounded. He hated that he sounded like a grumpy, sleep deprived teenager, with low blood-sugar. But his leg hurt so damn much, he couldn’t help it.

He stepped into the bathroom, and went through his nightly routine. As the last step of the routine, he fished up a travel toothbrush and toothpaste from his right hand pocket.

After he was done, he hobbled over to the room Michelle had said was the bedroom.

The room was a calm blue-gray shade, a queen size bed occupied some of the space along the opposite wall. The white covers and the pillows looked incredibly comfortable.

He didn’t waste no time making his way over to the bed. There was no way he would be in a vertical position a second longer than strictly necessary.

He tore off his t-shirt and unbuttoned his jeans. He shimmied the jeans down to his knees, lifted the covers away and sat down on the edge of the bed. Then he freed his legs from the denim fabric, and propped his legs up on the bed.

He let his back fall against the bed, and tried to relax.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A few minutes later Michelle came up. She had three couch cushions with her, which she placed on the end of the bed.

She grabbed a hold of one of the pillows, then she pointed to Jack’s cast. “You want that up?”

“Yes, please…” he whispered with relief.

“One, two or three cushions?”

“Two…” Jack shrugged, “-or three…”

Michelle nodded, “Try with two first?”

Jack nodded.

“May I?” Michelle asked, her hand hovering right beside the lowest part of Jack’s casted calf.

He nodded and steeled himself for the inevitable pain he would experience.

Michelle lifted his leg as carefully as she could, after placing the two first cushions she gently lowered the leg onto the cushions, but she didn’t let go of it.

“Do you want one more?”

Jack shook his head, “No, thanks… That’s perfect…”

Michelle nodded and released her hold on the fiberglass cast.

“Better?”

Jack nodded, and spread his right arm out, making good room for Michelle to crawl in close on his good side.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Should’ve listened to you…” he murmured after Michelle had crept into bed and placed her head on his chest.

“Hmmmmh?”

“I should have listened to you…” he sighed, “You told me I should find a better place to sit earlier. I was stubborn. And my leg feels like it’s trying to tear itself apart…”

Michelle pulled herself closer to Jack’s chest, her fingers automatically finding the scar and the calloused ribs on his left side.

“Hopefully it’ll be better by tomorrow…” Michelle whispered as she lead her hand up to Jack’s shoulder.

“Prob’ly will be…” Jack grunted, “Having it elevated helps a lot…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle woke up early the next day. Well, early for someone working nights.

She was still wrapped around Jack, still with her head nestled against his shoulder.

She was amazed that she hadn’t felt too sweaty or clammy during the hours they had been asleep. Usually when you sleep wrapped around another person, you wake up in sweat and regrets, especially in the warmth of Texas. But it felt completely okay, not uncomfortable at all. The covers were kicked down below their feet, and Michelle had the chance to study Jack, his scars and his muscles.

The scar from when he had been hit by a jaw was fascinating to look at. The biggest one was a soft crater, the slightly smaller one below it had grown outward, a hard keloid. The rest of the smaller ones were just slight indentations lacking pigmentation compared to the rest of Jack’s stomach.

She let her eyes wander until they connected with a pink and angry scar on the outer side of his thigh. It was roughly the size of a quarter, and still looked like it was healing. She spent a couple seconds staring at it, before she let her eyes travel further.

At his left knee, there was a crisp white line curving around the inside of his kneecap. The stitches were neat and even, a contrast to many of the other stitch-jobs she had discovered already. The scar probably came from an old surgery, one which had been planned and not forced.

She relaxed back against Jack’s chest, and listened to the soft snores coming off of him every now and then. It wasn’t constant, just every fifth or sixth breath.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A good while later, Jack started waking up.

“Good morning…” she whispered when she saw him opening his eyes. Then she giggled when she saw the sleepy expression Jack looked at her with. “You awake?”

“Nope…” Jack winced, “What time is it?”

“A little past noon…” Michelle shrugged.

“Okay…” Jack nodded sleepily. Tilting his head towards Michelle, before he groggily whispered. “Good morning, beautiful…”

“Good morning handsome…” Michelle grinned back. “How’s the leg?”

Jack looked towards his foot and wiggled his toes a bit. He didn’t manage to hide the discomfort spreading over his face. “Better…”

“Still a bit of room for improvement?”

Jack let out an exasperated sigh, “Yeah… Still room for improvement…”

“Did you bring some painkillers with you?”

Jack nodded, “Got a container in my jeans…”

“Want me to get you a bottle of water?” Michelle asked. Her hand rubbing circles over his chest.

“It’s not necessary yet…” Jack shrugged.

“No, but if you take your medicine now, you will be ready to go downstairs faster and we can have breakfast sooner…” Michelle said as she nudged Jack.

“Already?”

“I’m starting to get hungry… I woke up almost an hour ago…” Michelle said as she propped herself up on one elbow.

“Okay, we should do something about that then…” Jack figured as he rubbed a rough hand over his face. “No fun in staying hungry…”

Michelle smiled, “So… Should I get you some water?”

“You coming back to bed afterwards?”

Michelle nodded. Jack smiled.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

As soon as Michelle left the room, Jack sat up straight and studied his cast. Then he tried to wiggle his toes again, frowning as it put some kind of strain near the injury itself.

“Seriously…” he muttered to himself, “Why don’t you feel any better you piece of crap…?”

He reached forward with his hand, closing it around the cast just where he knew the break had been. Then he looked at his other leg, bending and stretching his right ankle.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” he asked, staring at the cast. He knew the easy answer, of course he knew that his leg had been fractured, and that it wasn’t completely healed yet. But shouldn’t it have calmed down by now? Stopped hurting as much?

He let his hand glide up to his knee. Then he rubbed and kneaded the area, easing the tension that had built up over the last couple of hours.

He stopped and laid back as soon as he heard Michelle coming back up the stairs. He leaned over on his side and managed to get a hold of his jeans. Quickly he fished out the orange container from one of his pockets and twisted the cap off. He poured out one pill onto his hand and placed the cap back on.

“Here you go…” Michelle smiled as she handed Jack the bottle, just before she climbed into the bed again.

“Thank you…” Jack smiled as he popped the pill into his mouth.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

A couple of hours later, they were laying on the couch together. Michelle sat closest to the armrest, one leg near the back of the couch, one on the floor. Jack was resting against her. She had her hands draped over his chest, gently playing with his t-shirt. He had one hand hanging across her forearm, and the other resting on her bent knee beside him.

“You know what?” Jack asked rubbing his thumb over her arm.

She shook her head.

“I could stay like this forever…” Jack admitted, grinning as he felt Michelle nod behind him.

**Well, another chapter down.**

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Thought: Maybe I should change the name of this to ‘Michelle’? I mean, my title game was weak AF with this one. But in my defense, I really had no plan when I started this. I seldom do…**  
-And here we are at chapter 17…   
(Also, hey… Me, writing romance! What the F happened?)

 

“Well, Mr. Dalton. I can’t see any other reason for your leg to keep bothering you, other than that bolt right here.” The doctor said as he pointed to the X-rays he had up on the screen. “The scar tissue growing around it can be the problem, or it could be pressing or poking a nerve next to it. The swelling probably doesn’t help either.”

Jack nodded as he looked down at his leg, the doctor had removed the cast to take the pictures. Muscle atrophy had set in, and his left leg looked completely pathetic. But the feeling of fresh air against his skin was good.

“Did your doctor back home say anything about whether you would get the bolts removed once you healed or not?”

“Think he said they could just stay in, if they didn’t cause any problems.” Jack shrugged, “And that they could be taken out already after six weeks if they proved to be bothersome…”

The doctor nodded, “And how long has it been now?”

“Almost four weeks, I think…”

The doctor nodded, studying the X-rays in silence for a couple of seconds. “Well, you will have to keep them for a little while longer then… But it looks to me that the fractures are healing nicely.”

“That’s comforting…” Jack relaxed, he had been seriously worried about whether his leg was healing correctly or not. “So, it’s probably just pain then… Nothing else to worry about?”

“Nothing I can spot on these pictures. Sadly I can’t do anything about that bolt yet, that will just have to stay in for now. It might get better when your leg is no longer so swollen, but since it’s already been about four weeks the swelling might be caused by the constant irritation.” The doctor informed, “If the pain continues, I would advise you to ask your doctor to have that bolt removed.”

Jack nodded. “But the bone itself looks good?”

“Apart from all the hardware you’ve collected? And the old callouses where fractures already have healed?”

Jack nodded.

“Yes, it looks good.” The doctor nodded and turned towards Jack again. “Both the bone and the scar from the surgery. Looks exactly like it should at this point.”

“That’s good…” Jack sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he felt more reassured. “I’ve been a bit worried, you know…”

“I can understand that. I can see you have a lot of experience with fractures, it’s normal to get a bit anxious when it doesn’t act like you would expect it to” the doctor said as he started getting materials he needed out of the cabinets. “You want color on your cast?”

“Nah… Just keep it simple…” Jack chuckled. “Just white, or black if you have that. –No, wait… White.”

The doctor looked over at Jack, “I have black too…”

“Changed my mind, don’t need to choose a color which will make the cast even warmer…” Jack shrugged.

“Good choice…” the doctor chuckled.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack left the doctor’s office half an hour later with a brand new cast and slightly less stuff to worry about constantly on his mind.

**Alright, HAVE A NICE ONE!**

 

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay, I know some of you might have wanted me to continue on in the same fashion. You know… Using multiple chapters for each day and really drag this out, but I have this scene in mind and if I don’t hurry the F*** up with this story, it won’t happen for like 15 more chapters. But if I speed this thing up, it can happen in like 3-4 chapters or so…**

ALMOST TWO WEEKS LATER

“So, last full day in town…” Michelle sighed, her voice made it clear how she felt about it.

Jack nodded as he poked his eggs with the fork. He had been dreading this day ever since the first night Michelle had slept in his motel room. But tomorrow he would have to drive to Houston to catch a flight back to Los Angeles.

“I managed to get my dad to step in for me tonight too…” Michelle said as she looked up at Jack, just in time to see a small smile tug at his lips. “Maybe we should do something? Or we could just stay here and relax…”

“Maybe we could go out to eat?” Jack offered, “A place where a button-down and blue jeans works just fine, cause that’s pretty much the most fancy clothes I have with me, except for my service uniform… And that might be a bit overkill anyway…”

Michelle nodded, “-but I bet you look hot in it…”

“Maybe you could be the judge of that another time?” Jack tried to smile. “As sure as you want me to come back…”

“Want you to come back?” Michelle raised her eyebrows, “I’m bummed out because you have to leave!”

“I’m bummed out about that too…” Jack agreed as he put down his fork, his appetite was a bit dulled by the fact that these last perfect weeks were about to come to an end.

They both sat there poking at the breakfast Michelle had made. Neither of them really felt like eating at the moment.

“Hey, Michelle…” Jack said, waiting for Michelle to look up at him. “What do you say we try to forget that I have to leave tomorrow. I mean, we… I think we would both feel better about that…”

Michelle nodded a little, “Could we also agree that this isn’t forever?”

“Hmmm?”

“That us saying goodbye tomorrow. –It won’t be forever…”

Jack nodded, “Hey, I might only have known you for a couple of weeks, but the world would have to work a whole lot harder to keep me away from you.”

Michelle grinned, and leaned over the table kiss Jack. “I’ll keep you to those words!”

“I hope you will!” Jack smiled back.

After sitting in silence and poking away at their breakfast for a good while, they both managed to finish up their breakfast.

“I’ll do the dishes…” Jack decided as he got up from his chair.

“You don’t have to…”

“You’ve already made breakfast, I kinda have to pull my weight here too you know…” Jack winked, “At least now that I can…”

Michelle grinned and stood up herself. “Hey… I love you.”

Those three little words hit him like a truck. He wasn’t prepared, not to hear them at least. He had been thinking about saying that exact same thing to her, just hadn’t found the right time and place to say it for the first time. And then she just goes ahead and aces it so effortlessly.

Jack was left swaying next to his chair, he struggled to get his tongue to cooperate. Finally he managed to stutter out a shaky and nervous “You too…”

A couple seconds later, both of them were still grinning like fools.

“I love you.” Jack almost whispered before he pulled Michelle close for a kiss.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Do you even know how good you look?” Jack asked a quarter past seven. They had both just dressed up for going to the little Italian family owned restaurant in the neighbor town.

“I look good?” Michelle asked with a sultry wink, causing Jack’s heart to gallop. She already knew her outfit looked like it was made especially for her.

Giving himself a second to just stare at the roof, he nodded. Then he looked back at her, “You look incredible…”

She was in a fire-red dress.  Tight fitting, hugging her in just the right way. She had tan, high heeled sandals on her feet, and her nails were painted in the same color as her dress.

“We won’t be staying out too late, I hope…” Jack breathed, his eyes locked on her hips. _Because, as good as that dress looks on… It would look a 100 times better on the floor._

“Is it your leg again?” she asked with a worried glace down at where his jeans stretched tight over the cast.

“No… -No, nothing I can’t handle…” Jack reassured.

“-Without being all messed up tomorrow?”

Jack nodded, even though he knew he very well could end up with paying for whatever he decided to do tonight, tomorrow.

“…Just can’t wait to see that dress on the floor at the end of the evening.” Jack admitted with a smile.

Michelle blushed and walked over to Jack, before she whispered “Well accompanied by that shirt and those jeans I hope…”

Jack nodded, leaned down and placed a kiss on her cheek.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“So…” Michelle inquired, “What don’t I know about you yet…?”

Jack shrugged, “A whole lot… But that’s be-”

“No, silly! I don’t mean the work stuff, I know you can’t tell me about that. I mean you! What don’t I know about you as a person yet? About you family, friends… Cats or dogs? Weekend in the woods or in the city…?”

Jack smiled as he looked down at the tablecloth. “Okay… You already know I’m from a big family…”

Michelle nodded.

“Mostly sisters. You have your dad’s name. –And your momma’s eyes, from what I could tell by that picture!”

“But I don’t have my mom’s eyes…” Jack countered with a puzzled look on his face.

“When you smile, yours look just like hers…” Michelle said as she stared at his eyes, waiting for one of those smiles. She didn’t have to wait long.

“You think?” Jack asked. The smile on his lips were reaching his eyes, making them crinkle just like how Michelle had meant.

“Yes…” Michelle grinned. She couldn’t see how she could possibly fall more in love with the man on the other side of her table, but that smile left her feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Well, I’ve already met your mom and pop, and your older brother –Mark…” Jack smiled, “But you had a kid brother too?”

Michelle nodded, “Danny. He’s studying to be a lawyer, he’s in Chicago.”

“Danny! That was it!” Jack nodded, remembering the name again.

Michelle nodded, “Bet you’d like him too…”

“If the rest of the family is an indicator, yes.” Jack chuckled. He could already tell he liked the rest of her family, and as far as he knew, he had been accepted by them.

Michelle smiled and took a sip of her wine. They had arranged for a friend of hers to come pick them up later, that way they wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

Jack took a sip of his own, before he put the glass down and looked straight at her. “Cats or dogs?”

“I like both…” Michelle started, “But if I had to choose one over the other, it would have to be dogs.”

Jack’s grin widened, “Yes!”

“So you’re a dog person?” Michelle assumed.

“Yeah, I am.” Jack nodded, “I’ve got nothing against cats, but who can resist all the energy and the loyalty of a dog? Cats are okay, but they don’t come running, wagging every part of their body, bouncing of joy because you’re home from work. No, but they might look up, stretch and head for the fridge in hope of getting a snack from you.”

Michelle chuckled, “I guess you had both growing up…”

Jack nodded, “We lived at a farm, it was only natural to have both…”

“We also had both, I miss having a dog of my own.”

“Two dog people, what could go wrong?” Jack smirked.

“Are we able to go two for two? Where would you rather spend your weekend, woods or city?” Michelle asked leaning on the table with her elbows.

“I would have to say woods. –As long as I’m not dropped out there from a plane without proper gear or any food for the trip…”

“I take it that has happened…”

Jack nodded with a stern expression. “Yeah… And more than once…”

“Well, at least you had your parachute…”

“Had a few times where HALO almost became HANO…” Jack frowned, “But I managed to pull the second chute every time that happened. A couple of those landings were a little harder than necessary.”

“HANO?”

“Instead of High Altitude - Low Opening, try High Altitude - No Opening…”

Michelle’s eyes widened in shock. “Shit, that sounds bad!”

“Well, you certainly feel very alive until that second parachute yanks a hold of you…”

“I would believe that…” Michelle gasped, “I thought parachutes were relatively safe, but that has happened more than once to you?”

Jack nodded, “More like 9 or 10 times. Lost count somewhere around the 4th time… But then again, I’ve jumped more times than most too…”

Michelle nodded, “You’re not getting me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane anytime soon.”

“Didn’t plan on it…” Jack chuckled, “Unless you wanted to…”

“Nah… I’m good…”

“And you? Woods or city?”

“Woods. Of course as every other girl I like to go shopping once in a while, but give me a tent, a bonfire and a billion stars to look at any day…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle studied Jack as they ate. The dark shirt suited him well, if she didn’t know better she would have thought it was tailored for him.

Her eyes fell on his right wrist, and the black leather cuff he wore there. It hadn’t left his wrist ever since she met him. Maybe there was a reason for it? Maybe one she would learn of later?

Then she studied his hands for a little while. All of his knuckles had scars, they all seemed slightly flatter than the knuckles of a usual hand. She wondered if he had literally punched them flat, if that was a thing or not.

She looked up at his face again. She could look at that face forever. Forever.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack looked up just in time to see Michelle look back down at her plate.

Her long brown curls were dancing down her shoulders. Framing her face like it was a masterpiece, it might as well have been. She was stunning. Beautiful.

_How the hell had she agreed to even talk to him? Let alone go out on a real date two weeks later?_

**Okay… Yeah… 2 chapters within 24 hours…**

**  
**


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay, next chapter! This might border on NSFW… Just saying…**

Jack unbuttoned his shirt as fast as his hands would allow him. His crutches were carelessly thrown aside, they were the last thing on his mind right now. He shrugged off his shirt, then he flopped down on the bed. He managed to stifle the pained gasp which almost left his lips as the fire near his ankle intensified. He didn’t have time for that.

Lying there, he marveled at her good looks as Michelle pulled off her dress, before tossing it in a heap at the floor. Jack was right, it looked even better like that.

She climbed in after him, her hands deftly unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans.

“You want this?” she whispered as she started tugging the fabric downward.

He nodded, the words caught in his throat.

She smiled.

“And you?” he finally managed to ask, “You okay with this?”

She let go of his jeans and leaned forward to kiss him, “Yes.”

Then she went back to helping him remove his jeans and underwear.

Jack propped himself up on his elbows, watching her as she worked the fabric off of his legs. His eyes lingered at her breasts, where a black lace bra covered her. Soon her matching cheekies were quickly on their way to the floor.

She climbed back into bed, Jack made short work of the clasp on her bra.

“Well, aren’t you good with your hands, soldier?” she teased, leaning in for a hot kiss.

Jack grinned as their lips met, he could feel Michelle doing the same thing. Her right hand pressed against his left shoulder, her left was moving up and down the length of his side. He had his resting at her waist, pulling her down towards him.

“Just the start, babe…” Jack winked, “Just the start…”

Jack opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a condom. He tore away the wrapper and started to put it on as Michelle was stealing his attention by kissing his right thigh.

As soon as the rubber was on, Michelle straddled his hips, he placed his hands on hers.

She leaned down kissing Jack’s right shoulder, tracing the scar with her lips.

He let his right hand travel up to pull her face up to his.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It was only a couple of seconds into the real ‘act’ when Jack realized that it wouldn’t happen.  Not tonight at least, not before his leg stopped acting like a bitch. The thrusts sent shocks up his leg. He knew the leg was as good as healed, and that the pain wasn’t dangerous. –But it really hurt. He couldn’t wait to have that agonizing screw, or bolt, or whatever, removed.

“He-, hey honey…” he whispered, trying his best to conceal his discomfort.

Michelle stopped what she was doing and looked down at Jack, “Yeah?”

She understood the problem as soon as she took in his expression. “Gosh, you’re hurting… Aren’t you?”

Jack nodded stiffly, his jaw set hard against the pain from his leg.

Michelle carefully climbed off him, “Are you alright?”

Jack sighed, trying push the pain to the back of his mind. “Yeah. Will be.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it…” Jack sighed. He had been looking forward to this. “I’m sorry too…”

“Raincheck?”

“Yes please…” Jack tried to smile, it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Man, I hate that leg right now…”

Michelle chuckled, “I get that… Do you need anything for it?”

Jack shook his head, “No, I’ve been drinking… I shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, that’s right…” Michelle frowned, looking at Jack as he tried push past the pain.

“How about we just cuddle instead?” Jack offered, trying to wrap his arm around Michelle’s shoulders. “We already know that doesn’t need to hurt…”

Michelle nodded as she pressed herself up against his upper body, draping her right leg over his. She kissed his shoulder again, before she let her hand start toying with his chest.

“-I love you…” he whispered after a couple of seconds. He let out a short nervous laugh, “I can’t believe how much I love you…”

“Then promise to come back to me…”

“I will…” Jack nodded, craning his neck to kiss her. “Trust me…”

“I do…” Michelle smiled, stretching give him a quick kiss of her own. “I do.”

And Jack couldn’t help but hope that one day she would say those exact words to him as they stood up at the altar.

**Okay.**

**Hope you all made it past that in one piece, more or less…**

**-I’m not sure how I feel about this chapter. (Mostly embarrassed to post it I guess…)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Okay, so I’ve been struggling a bit with this chapter. I had no idea of how to write it. I’ve never been good with goodbyes.**

 

Jack had his leg up on the seat beside him. His head was leaned up against the window of the Greyhound bus headed for Houston. The vibrations from the road transferred to the windows and to his forehead.

He had kissed Michelle goodbye 20 minutes ago, as she dropped him off at the bus station. She had offered to drive him all the way to Houston, but they had finally decided it would be easier for both of them to do it like this.

“Hey man, are you alright?” an old guy who had taken the seat on the opposite side of the isle from him asked after a while.

Jack looked up, he knew his face was revealing all of his emotions.

“Yeah…” he sighed, “Just had to leave my girl…”

The old man nodded, “Yeaaaahh… I’ve done that couple times… But you’re not shippin’ out son… Not with that cast. –Trouble in paradise?”

“No.” Jack sighed, “Everything is perfect.”

“Then why are you leaving?”

“I’ve got stuff to do back in LA” Jack frowned, “And I probably won’t be able to make it back here in a long while… Feels kinda like shipping out.”

“-But at least you won’t be shot at…” the old man with the veteran’s cap reasoned.

Jack chuckled grimly, he knew better. But he probably wouldn’t be shot at for the next couple of weeks. But after that there were no promises. “Yeah, at least that won’t happen.”

There was a pause which lasted for about four seconds before the old man asked, “So, what is pulling you towards LA?”

“Got a doctors appointment.” Jack shrugged, “And I’ll soon be back to work too. That’s also in LA”

“Doctors appointment, for your leg right?”

Jack nodded, “Yeah…”

“Soon healed?”

“Hope so… Looked good at the last check-up…” Jack shrugged. “The biggest screw is irritating something, so it doesn’t feel like it’s healing right. But doc said that would probably go away once I have that removed…”

“Much pain?”

“A bit…” Jack shrugged, he didn’t want to admit that the pain sometimes was bad enough to pull him completely out of commission. Or keep him up at night.

The old man nodded. “And the work, what do you do for a living?”

“Oh… Uhm… I… -I work for a think tank…”

“A think tank?”

Jack nodded, “Yes…”

“Well, what do you do there?”

“Well, I’m hired as a link to the military.” Jack shrugged. “You know, someone needs to be the middleman between those geeks and us regular folks.”

“You used to be a soldier?” the man lit up.

Jack nodded. “Enlisted once I left high school. Spent about a lifetime doing tours all over the place.”

The old veteran nodded.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“So, where’s prince charming?” Sam Verner asked as he climbed up on the second barstool in line.

“He had to go back to California…” Michelle sighed, “He left earlier today…”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that…” Sam said as he pulled up his wallet, placing a bill on the counter. “Hand me some shine, will ya?”

Michelle nodded and placed a jar of moonshine and a glass on the counter. “Night off?”

Sam nodded. “Taylor is working tonight.”

“Tay is working tonight? I really didn’t think he worked nights anymore…”

“Well, I told him Jeff still struggles with that back of his. He won’t be out to cause any trouble.”

Michelle let out a flat laugh, any other day it might have been a real one. “Yeah, Tay has been afraid of Jeff for a good while now…”

“Guess he should have known better than to date Jeff’s sister.”

Michelle nodded.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah…” Michelle answered, but even she could hear how fake it sounded.

“Mich…”

“Okay, no…” she admitted. Her voice was on the verge of cracking. “I miss him…”

Sam grimaced as he took a sip of the moonshine. “Well, trust me. That guy, he will come back for you. You don’t have to doubt that.”

Michelle shook her head, “I’m not too worried about that… I just miss him… A lot.”

Sam nodded, then he took another sip of the shine.

“I bet he misses you just as much, if not more…” Sam shrugged, “He’d be a fool not to…”

Michelle wiped at her eyes, drying away the tears that had formed there.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

As he sat at the airport Jack pulled out his wallet from his duffle bag. He fished out a folded 4x6 photo.

It was of him and Michelle, together. It was Lorraine, her mother, who had captured the moment. It had been Rory’s 71st birthday. The family, minus Danny her younger brother, had been gathered at the bar for a little bit of celebration.

The picture showed Jack and Michelle in one of the booths together. Jack sat sideways, his legs were resting over Michelle’s lap. His left elbow was leaning on the table for support, her right hand was lightly resting on top of Jack’s cast. His right hand and her left were on his lap. Their pinkies locked around each other, like they were making a pinky promise.

He could actually see just how happy he was in that picture. Pure, honest happiness. All his worries, all his nightmares, -erased. The look on his face would tell everybody who saw it that _that girl_ , she was his whole world.

And Michelle, Michelle looked as beautiful as ever in it. Her thick brown curls were bouncing off her shoulders. Her smile was giving the sun a run for its money. Her green eyes and freckles were just mesmerizing. She was the definition of perfect.

Looking at the picture, he could hear her laughter. It gave him that warm, bubbly feeling in his chest.

He felt around inside his duffle, and fished out his phone too. Then he started typing. 

 _‘Hey… Just lettin’ ya_  
know I miss ya and I   
love ya!’

He stared at the text for a couple of seconds before he pressed send.

He hadn’t even left Texas yet, and he couldn’t wait to get back.

**Okay, so I robbed you of the actual ‘goodbye scene’. Sorry. (I was going to butcher it anyway… So I’m kinda not all that sorry anyway)**

**Hope you’re having fun though…**

**  
**


	21. Chapter 21

 

**Hey there! Just me again…**

 

“Hey buddy, welcome home!” Mac grinned as Jack hobbled out from the arrival gate.

“Hey Mac!” Jack grinned looking at Mac, “Is this payback for Massachusetts?”

Mac shrugged, “Maybe…”

“Well, I think I wore it better…” Jack chuckled as he pointed to Mac’s shirt. “Dude, can you take my bag? It’s kinda difficult to maneuver like this…”

“Of course…” Mac nodded as he moved in to free Jack from the duffle bag he had over his shoulder. “Did you have a nice ‘vacation’?”

Jack nodded.

“I guessed so, I’ve barely heard from you!”

“What are you yapping about? I’ve called, I’ve texted…”

“Not as often as you usually do…” Mac smirked, “I mean, last time when you visited your sister… I think you called twice a day!”

“In my defense, YOU were recovering from that shoulder thingy…”

“You mean when I dislocated my shoulder?”

Jack nodded.

“And you had a broken collarbone!” Mac countered, “My shoulder wasn’t any worse than yours!”

Jack shrugged.

“But you had a good time?”

Jack nodded again, “Yeah, had a great time!”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Mac kept glancing over at Jack as he drove them back to Jack’s place. “Leg still brothering you?”

Jack nodded, “Think I have to get some of the hardware removed before this one stops acting up…”

Mac looked down at the cast, then he nodded. “Kinda like that screw you had in your elbow after Cairo?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, let’s hope the break itself looks good…”

“Oh, it does.”

“You’ve already been to the doctor?”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, I actually got a little nervous when it just kept on hurting… The fracture looks good.”

“Good to hear man!” Mac smiled, guessing that his friend would be back in the field sooner rather than later. “So you’re all set for going to the doctor again tomorrow?”

Jack nodded.

“You seem a little distracted…” Mac mused, “Is there something wrong?”

“Just…” Jack sighed, “I just miss her…”

“Michelle?”

“Yeah, who else?”

Mac shrugged, “She really means something, doesn’t she?”

Jack nodded, massaging his thigh. “She does…”

“Man, I know you’re easily wowed, but this is a whole different level.” Mac chuckled.

“What can I say? I think I love her…” Jack admitted, “Really, really love her.”

“Real serious in other words?”

Jack nodded again.

“More serious than Sarah?” Mac asked after a few seconds.

Jack didn’t answer. Didn’t nod, didn’t shake his head. He just turned his head and looked out the window at the passing scenery.

The rest of the drive was done in silence.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The next day

“So you suffer a lot of pain?” the doctor asked. Jack nodded. “And you would like to have the screws and the plate removed as soon as possible?”

“At least that big one, I don’t know if it’s necessary to take out the rest…” Jack shrugged glancing over at the X-rays. “Didn’t you say something about that I could have that taken out after six weeks?”

“No, that was the cast I was talking about… But yeah, that’s most likely the one causing all the trouble…” the doctor agreed, “Now. In general, I’d like for all of those screws and the plate to stay in for at least _three months_. In general…”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming…” Jack said with hope in his voice.

“-But… You’ve been my patient for what? The better half of a decade?”

Jack nodded, “Think it’s going on six or seven years now doc…”

“To cut to the chase, I know you. I know you don’t fuzz over nothing. So when you come here and tell me that you’re in pain, I know that I should take you seriously.”

The doctor studied the X-rays once again, his index finger tracing the lines of the fractures and the screws. Like he was memorizing them.

“I could make a compromise. But you would have to be extra careful for a few weeks. –And I’m not promising that it will help with the pain, but I think it’s worth a shot.”

“What are you saying doc?”

“It’s only been four weeks, but I think I could be able to remove that big one.” Doctor Andrews suggested, “Now, to make me feel more at ease, you would have to wear the cast for a few more weeks. Just so I know your leg has the extra support. I know I was talking about having that taken off at six weeks, but if I remove the largest screw, I would like you to wear the cast for at least eight weeks.”

“Two more weeks then?”

“Two more weeks than we first planned for…” the doctor nodded, “Might still need more time, but we start off with two more weeks.”

“Okay, but when can we do this?”

“Have you eaten anything today?”

“No, not yet…” Jack admitted. It was kind of embarrassing to admit, but he just hadn’t gotten around to it. It was only 11:30 after all, and he wasn’t in danger of getting assigned any missions for the time being.

“Had anything to drink? Water, coffee, anything?”

Jack shook his head, sensing that this wasn’t some kind of evaluation to see how well he was coping with the stress of being injured or something like that. This was more of a formality before the doctor could answer his question.

“Well then…” doctor Andrews smiled, “I could have the staff prep the surgery room now. We’ll put you under, have that nasty sucker out and you awake all before 1 p.m… How do you feel about that?”

“Sounds great.” Jack grinned.

“Perks of your workplace having its own medical staff, right?” Andrews smiled.

“Yeah, I’ve been grateful for that many times…” Jack smiled, “I bet this wouldn’t have happened in a public hospital.”

“You might be right about that…” Andrews shrugged, “Now, who do you want to poke you?”

“-With a needle…” Jack asked, his voice suddenly cold as ice.

Andrews nodded.

“Is Jonah here?”

“It’s his day off…”

“Claire then…?”

“Claire? Okay, I’ll have her do it…” Andrews nodded. “I’ll just go inform the rest of the crew and we’ll get to it…”

Jack nodded.

“Just wait here, try to relax…”

Jack nodded again. “Man, I hate needles…”

Andrews chuckled, “You know what? It still amazes me… You’ve been shot, stabbed, nearly electrocuted. Broken bones, had dislocations. Been burnt, had bruises that normal people wouldn’t believe if they saw them… You go out there, and do it all over again. –But you’re afraid of needles.”

“I didn’t say I was rational, now did I?” Jack countered with the usual nine words he used for this specific situation. He knew very well where his fear of needles stemmed from, and his fear wasn’t irrational either. Well, needles with something in them at least…

 

**Okay, I admit it… I’m team ‘Jack has a fear of needles’…  
-I know I’m not alone!**

**  
**


	22. Chapter 22

**I kinda have this challenge with myself, to see how long I can keep this up without me, or you, losing interest completely.**

**(I’m sorry for all of my other un-finished works… I’d like to blame that butterfly in the corner… -Or that shiny lamp above my desk.)**

 

Michelle smiled as she saw the caller ID on her phone.

“Hey handsome!” she grinned as she answered.

“Hey darlin’!” Jack’s voice came back.

She stepped out from behind the bar, and headed outdoors. It was still early, just a little past 3 p.m. She was stocking up her bar and preparing for when her patrons would arrive later.

“You sound tired…”

“Yeah, just woke up…” Jack yawned.

“Just woke up? Isn’t it like 1 p.m. where you are? Have I messed up your sleep that bad?”

“Yeah… No, you haven’t…” Jack chuckled, “Just had the bolt removed. Still a little drugged up.”

“Oh, did it go well?”

“Think so…” Jack answered, she could hear the smile on his lips. “Doesn’t hurt yet, but then again… Probably still a little drugged up…”

Michelle nodded to herself, “Well, let’s hope it gets a whole lot better from now on!”

“Yeah, let’s hope so!” Jack chuckled. “And you, what are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing…” Michelle shrugged, “Just putting booze into shelves and tidying a bit at the bar… And missing you… You know… Exactly what you’d expect…”

“I miss you too…”

“I never knew my bed could feel that big, or that lonely…” Michelle sighed, “It was missing you…”

“My bed felt all to big too,” Jack admitted. “Wasn’t all that fun to lay there all alone…”

There was a pause, five or six seconds of them just listening to each other’s breaths over the phone, before Jack chuckled and asked. “How the hell did we become so attached?”

Michelle grinned, “Well, there was this really handsome soldier who hobbled into my bar a couple of weeks ago… And it was you.”

“That beat-up soldier saw the kindest and most beautiful woman he’d ever seen…” Jack murmured calmly, “-And it was you.”

Michelle blushed.

“Hey, the doctor is standing in the doorway. Do you mind if I call you tonight?”

“Not at all, I love you!”

“Damn, you always beat me to saying that!” Jack tried to sound annoyed, but the laughter in his voice ruined his attempt. “I love you too.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Girlfriend?” John Andrews asked as he walked over to Jack’s bed.

Jack nodded. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t have that a couple of weeks ago, or have I just been very dense for a while?”

“No, you’re correct.” Jack smiled, “She’s from Texas… Met her when I was back there…”

Doctor Andrews nodded, his brows drawn up in a concerned manner. “Long distance relationships…”

“Seldom ends well…” Jack nodded, “I know. But I’ve just got to make this work!”

“You’ve got to?”

“She’s amazing!” Jack smiled, “I’ve just got to make this work, one way or the other…”

“But you’re staying with us?”

“For now…” Jack nodded, “But honestly, this is the girl I’d be willing to retire for…”

“You’re not thinking about…”

“No. Not directly.” Jack shrugged, “But if that’s what it takes, then I’d hang up my… Whatever… and move back to Texas with her.”

“Well… For my sake, and for the rest of the world too, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…” Andrews nodded as he patted Jack on his shoulder. “As much as you sometimes make my job a living hell, you’re a great agent. And Phoenix needs you.”

“I don’t make your job a living hell…” Jack frowned.

Andrews crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t?”

“Nah…”

“Both you, and that blond kid, have a habit of coming in here… Dripping with blood and refusing to let us take a look at you! We always have to work as detectives to figure out if there is anything else wrong with you, apart from the painfully obvious, -like a limb poking the wrong way. I’ve discovered internal damage that likely would have killed you, FOUR TIMES! And when one or both of you are held up in here for more than 10 hours, we have to get someone to stand guard outside the door to make sure you don’t run off! –But no… You’re not making any of our lives difficult…”

“Okay…” Jack agreed, with a shameful frown. “I might be a slightly difficult patient…”

“But you’re a good guy.” John Andrews sighed, “Doing what you guys do… You make the world a safer place.”

“Relax, I won’t be quitting tomorrow…” Jack chuckled.

“I’m just putting it out there…” Andrews said, his hands coming up in a defensive position. “I hope this thing with that woman works out as a long distance thing. Or if she’d be willing to move, that’d be great! But… I think I speak for everyone here… We don’t want to lose you.”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle had just served up the second beer of the night when her phone buzzed again. She picked it up, expecting to see Jack’s name on the caller ID. It wasn’t him.

“Danny, how are you little brother?”

“I’m good, but not all that good…”

“Okay, mystery kid… Explain…”

“I flunked two of the tests…”

“Okay, so you’ll take them up again… No big deal…” Michelle shrugged, even though she felt a little bad for Danny.

“No. You don’t understand!” Danny said with a certain amount of desperation in his voice. “I flunked two tests, twice. And I don’t think the last chance on either of them went any better!”

“Oh…” Michelle paused, “But you can still take the classes again, then you get three new tries on each of them.”

“Sis, I think I need a break from all of this…” Danny sighed, “Take a year off, and just… You know… -Work.”

“Might not be the worst idea ever…” Michelle nodded.

“So, thing is… I’m calling you first, because… Well…”

Michelle waited patiently as Danny tried to form the next sentence in his mind.

“Is there a chance I could get some shifts at the bar? Like, 50% or something? I could just stay here and find keep on working at that grocery-store I already have a couple of shifts at. I know they’re looking for someone who can take a bigger position… But I miss Texas, and I miss you guys. –And I want to go home, but I don’t want to have to look all over the place for a job…”

“Okay, yes… I’ve been working 7 nights a week for way too long already… Dad have stepped in when I’ve really needed it, but if you want to work here. That would be super!”

“You mean that?”

“If you need it, I think you could get more than 50% too. I’ve seen in the paper that they’re looking for nurses lately. I could probably get a few shifts if I don’t get enough hours at the bar…”

“You mean that?”

“Would I be suggesting it if I didn’t mean it?”

“I don’t know…”

“I wouldn’t…” Michelle chuckled, “So, you have any plans for when you’re coming home?”

“I have one class left, which I still have a hope of passing. Plus I’ve got six weeks notice at the shop.”

“Okay, so… Six weeks then?”

“Could we say eight? Maybe even more… I need to move too you know… That’s not done easily.”

“Sure, just give me a hint a week or so before you’re ready to begin here…”

“Thanks Michelle!” Danny smiled, much less distressed than when the call had started, “You’re the best!”

“Hey, that’s what family are for!” Michelle grinned, this could work to her advantage too.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It was a couple of hours later, Jack had been released from Phoenix’s hospital wing, and Mac was once again waiting on him.

“So… Did you know you were going to have surgery today?” Mac asked as he followed Jack down to the entrance and his Jeep.

“Not before I was here… No.” Jack paused, “But it wasn’t a big surgery…”

“No… It wasn’t.” Mac agreed, “But it’s still surgery. And you know how I feel when my friends are in surgery…”

“And that’s one of the reasons I didn’t say anything. It was a small surgery, I’m actually impressed they decided to put me under…”

“Oh, I think I know why… I can’t imagine it would be any easier to place an epidural on you…”

Jack nodded as he reflected over that. “Yeah, you’re probably right… Anyway… I didn’t tell you, because Murphy would have had to work double overtime if this should have gone wrong. And I didn’t need for you to get all worried over something which was literally nothing…”

Mac glanced over at Jack, even though he didn’t quite agree with his logic, he couldn’t reason against it either.

“I’m not a fan of when you guys are in surgery…” Mac finally sighed, and Jack knew why.

“Well brother… Sometimes it’s a necessary evil…” Jack chuckled lightly, “Just like those damned needles."

Mac nodded, a brief smile crossing his lips. “Just like the needles…”

 

**Okay, notice: I’ve written that Mac doesn’t like when his _friends_ are in surgery. –I might have Mac feel uneasy about surgeries in general, or just when they apply to people he care about (excluding himself). Just wanted to point that out, if it should come up in a future chapter.  **

**Also: This freaking chapter had a little bit of EVERYTHING! Literally!**

**And: Do you think I managed to keep a straight face as I wrote ‘Phoenix’s hospital WING’?            -Nope, no I didn’t… I giggled way more than I should…**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hello darlings!**

**This chapter will probably be peppered by small time-jumps. Haha!  
Those time jumps will be marked with my usual ‘MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016’ break, but in BOLD text… **

 

It was now two weeks since he had had the bolt removed. And everything was working nicely.

He still had to wear the cast, but at least he wasn’t in pain 24-7.

He had started to get back to work, albeit just riding the desk. It was boring, uneventful and a job he just really didn’t enjoy. He was made for physical stuff. Not paperwork.

He glanced up at the clock on the wall. 11:23, back at Michelle’s it would be half past one right about now.

He looked down and continued typing, cussing silently to himself every time he hit the wrong key. _How in the world could Riley type so fast? Oh, yeah… Practice…_

He looked up again, still 11:23. The second hand on the clock was the only thing which had moved, not much, not even by 30 seconds.

He sighed.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

12:00. FINALLY! Lunch hour!

Jack set his leg down to the floor, he didn’t even need to help with his hands. He swung his legs out to the side, and pushed himself to a standing position. Then he grabbed his crutches and headed for the corridor. 

He found the nearest elevator and stepped in. Then he pushed the button for the roof.

Once the elevator reached the roof, he hobbled over to one of the benches. He sat down and picked his phone out of his pocket.

“Hey… I bet you look beautiful today!” he grinned as Michelle answered on the second ring.

“Well, I don’t know about that…” Michelle chuckled. “I look like a hot mess right now…”

“Well, duh… You’re always hot…” Jack smiled, “I’m not so sure about the ‘mess’ part though…”

“Thanks…” Michelle sighed, “But I’ve got multiple unknown stains on my tank top, confetti in my hair, and a creeping suspicion that I would make a horrible mother…”

Jack snorted, “What is happening over there?”

“My cousin is visiting. With her kids…”

“Oh, yeah… Been there myself…” Jack chortled. “All of my sisters have kids.”

“They do?”

“Yes, and now… I try to visit them from time to time. Always a blast. Except for when you’re beat up from work or combat and you’ve got three young ones launching themselves at you. That just hurts…”

Michelle winced. “Sounds worse than this…”

“Nah… Pain only lasts a little while anyway…” Jack smiled. “And I think you’re wrong…”

“Huh?”

“That creeping suspicion that you would make a horrible mother?” Jack chuckled, blushing as his mind went on a little field trip down the road marked ‘what-can-happen-in-the-future’. “I think you would be an awesome mother.”

“Trying to steal boyfriend points again?” Michelle asked.

“No…”

“Too bad, it was working…” Michelle chuckled, “50 points to you!”

Jack grinned, “Yay! 50 more points, how many kisses am I up to for the next time we meet?”

“Oh, I don’t know… Maybe a year’s worth…” Michelle teased.

“I’ll probably empty that account in about a week…” Jack chuckled.

“Then I’ll just give you more points on the kisses, and suddenly you’ll be in for an eternity of kisses. –Maybe even a backrub or three…”

Jack’s smile widened. “I’d be up for that!”

“Giving or receiving?”

“Both!” Jack answered quickly, “You know I can’t keep my hands off of you!”

Michelle laughed, Jack smiled.

Suddenly the elevator door opened again, and Riley stepped out. She had a tinfoil swan in her left hand and a fork in her right.

“Special delivery from Bozer’s kitchen…” she declared, “We figured you’d be up here when you didn’t show up at the cafeteria…”

“Thanks Riley…” Jack smiled as he took the elegantly wrapped food and the fork and placed it on the bench beside him.

“Riley’s there?” Michelle asked quickly, “Say hi from me!”

“I will…” Jack said into the phone, before he angled it away from his mouth, and spoke to Riley. “Ri… Michelle told me to say hi!”

“Say hi back then…” Riley winked. “Mac and Boze are waiting for me downstairs, so… I have to go.”

“Hey, tell Bozer I said thanks!”

Riley gave him thumbs up as she started to back away towards the elevator again.

“Teammates looking out for you I suppose…”

Jack nodded, then he remembered that he was on the phone and that Michelle wouldn’t be able to see him nod. “Yeah, Bozer brought some leftovers to me for lunch today. Riley delivered them…”

 

**MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016**

Two more weeks later (8 weeks since he broke his leg)

“So… Any news?” Michelle asked as soon as Jack picked up the phone. She knew he had been to the doctor today, and that there was a chance he could have the cast removed too.

“Yeah, no more itchy cast, and I can start to walk. –Or, you know… Try to…” Jack admitted as he limped from his kitchen and into his living room.

“So, how does it feel?”

“Well, it’s been eight weeks since I really used that leg…” Jack reasoned, “It’s weird, but doesn’t hurt all that much…”

“Good.”

“And you? How’s life in Texas?” Jack asked as he lowered himself on the couch and kicked up his feet. Just because he was out of the cast and it didn’t hurt all that much anymore, didn’t mean he didn’t need to have his leg elevated from time to time.

“Good… Bobby and the rest of the guys told me to tell you that they missed you. And you already know I miss you…”

“I do, I miss you too.” Jack answered, biting his lip.

 

**MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016**

August 3rd 2017

“Hey, just calling to let you know I might be a little hard to reach for two or three weeks.” Jack drawled as he secured a Velcro strap holding his vest in place.

“Okay, why?” Michelle frowned.

“We’re headed out for a mission. Looks like it’s gonna take a few weeks.”

“Oh, you’re back in business!”

“Yeah…” Jack grinned. “I’m back! The leg is good enough to do whatever I need to, though I might get a little sore I guess…”

Michelle chuckled, “It wouldn’t be an idea to just wait a few more weeks, you know… Until you’re as strong as you were before you got injured?”

“Nah… Doc cleared me, and the PT cleared me…” Jack shrugged, “And I’ve cleared myself a couple of weeks ago…”

“Remember how that jog ended?”

“At home…”

“Okay, I’ll admit that. You got yourself home in one piece! But you were in pain for almost a week afterwards.”

“Well… I’m good now… I’ve been running a lot in PT, and the strength exercises are coming along nicely too…”

“And mules aren’t half as stubborn as Jack Wyatt Dalton…” Michelle sighed in defeat. “Just promise me you make it back alright…”

“Oh, sugar… Don’t you worry ‘bout that!” Jack chuckled, “I’ve always made it back home before!”

“-In one piece please…”

“Don’t worry…” Jack smiled as he strapped on the backup to the backup pistol. Then he reached for his rifle, “I’ll be back before you know it…”

“Jack… It’s only been about eleven weeks since you broke that leg…” Michelle tried to reason, “Please be careful…”

“Always am…”

“-We both know that’s a lie…” Michelle sighed, Jack had way too many scars to pull off that statement.

“It’s gonna be fine honey…” Jack tried to reassure her, just as Matty stepped inside the room.

“Wheels up in 20 Jack…”

Jack nodded and watched director Webber turn on her heel and leave.

“Michelle, I’ve got to hurry a bit. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine! And I’ll call you as soon as I’m back home! Okay?”

“Where are you going?”

“Sorry, can’t tell.”

“Be careful, okay?”

“I’ll do my best!” Jack smiled, before he hastily added “I love you!”

Michelle smiled, “I love you too, but be safe out there… Okay?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Jack grinned.

 

**MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016**

 

Nine days of radio silence, and Michelle was turning into a nervous wreck. She worried. Worried a lot. And every time her phone buzzed she expected the worst, or his voice. But then it turned out to be her father or some delivery guy asking for directions.

After twelve days she was waking up in the middle of the day (her night), sweating and worrying about her boyfriend.  

Fifteen days left her short-tempered, something she had never been before. And poor Sam Verner was the unlucky soul who had to listen to her verbal abuse.

The sixteenth day had her crying in the storing room of her bar, wiping away the moisture from her eyes and cheeks before she walked back out there.

21 days, and he finally called.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Hey babe…” Jack drawled, his voice was tired. Drained. “How are ya?”

“Oh my God!” Michelle blurted out as soon as she realized that this was actually Jack, her Jack. Calling. “I’ve been so worried! How are you, are you alright?”

“I’m good…”

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Nah… A few cuts and bruises, nothing to fuzz over. Just the ‘grand’ total of _maybe_ nine stitches…”

“Stitches? –But you’re okay? Nothing broken? Nothing badly hurt?”

“I’m good, darlin’…” Jack chuckled, “Just a little tired, we’ve been up for 36 hours straight. Just landed in LA, ‘bout to get stitched up and checked out by the staff at work. Just regular protocol, they would have taken us in for that check-up if we had been assigned a mission which in all reality was to walk across the street and buy three coffees too. Absolutely nothing to worry about…”

Jack knew that was a lie. But right now he figured a small lie to keep Michelle calm was good enough. She didn’t need to know that he’d been caught in the blast of an explosion. He had managed to walk away afterwards, that was what counted.

“Okay, if you say so…” Michelle relaxed a bit. Tension leaving her shoulders. “Can you give me a hint of where you were?”

“We were in Asia, think that’s about as specific I can go… -Sorry…”

“Okay…” Michelle sighed, “Hey, I’m glad you’re home…”

“So am I…” Jack admitted, silently wincing as he shrugged off his vest. He hadn’t bothered with taking it off for the flight home. He was that tired…

“Look, I’d love to talk for hours right about now. But that would probably just end with you listening to be snoring over the phone, and the medical staff here wants to go home I guess… So, can I call you, or Skype when I wake up tomorrow afternoon?”

“Tomorrow afternoon?” Michelle giggled, “Man, you must be really tired…”

“Yeah, I am… And I stink. I need a shower so bad…” Jack grimaced as he caught a whiff of himself. “Maybe I’ll go for multitasking, sleep in the shower…”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Not sure about that…” Jack almost chuckled. “But hey, I love you.”

“Love you too!” Michelle smiled, no longer stressed out of her mind. “Sleep tight…”

**Okay, I needed time to pass quickly here… Because Jack was busy and Michelle was busy and neither of them could actually visit the other.**

**But I’ve got plans. Don’t you worry! Don’t you worry…**


	24. Chapter 24

**Okay, so… Here comes the next one!**

**Still a few time-jumps. Try to bear with me…**

 

“Whoa… That looks painful…” Michelle gasped as Jack’s face came up on her screen.

“This little thing?” Jack joked, pointing at the shiner surrounding his left eye, and half of his cheek. “Not half as bad as it looks…”

“You sure? It looks really, really bad.” Michelle grimaced, “What happened?”

“Got punched in the face a couple days ago…” Jack shrugged, “Honestly, it looks worse than it is. Most of the bruising have dropped down with gravity. Wasn’t this bad yesterday…”

Michelle tilted her head, “And you want me to believe that?”

Jack nodded, “Yeah… It’s the truth. Besides, I didn’t even get a concussion.”

“ _You didn’t even get a concussion…_ You make it sound like you get concussions often…”

“I get them sometimes…” Jack shrugged, “But it comes with the territory.”

Michelle sighed, shaking her head.

“But you’re not hurt in any other way?”

“A few bumps and bruises, and twelve stitches. Doc decided I needed a little more than nine…”

“Where?”

“Just above my left elbow, five stitches… Right side, three stitches…”

“That’s eight…”

Jack held up his left hand showing a wrapped up thumb. “Four stitches.”

“How did you do all this?” Michelle mused, her eyes narrowing at the sight of the bandage.

“Knife fight…” Jack shrugged. “Other guy lost…”

Michelle nodded. “You sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, honey… I’m all good…” Jack grinned back. “And you?”

“Well, Danny has moved back home. He wants to start taking a few shifts at the bar…” Michelle lit up, “I might actually get some time off every now and then…”

Jack beamed, “Does that mean what I think it does?”

“Means that if you have a couple of slow weeks back in LA I might be able to take a trip…” Michelle winked.

“Or if I have time off, I can head back to Texas and we could spend the time just relaxing with each other…” Jack suggested with a wide smile.

“I’d love that…” Michelle admitted.

“Preferably without a cast next time…” Jack chuckled, “Maybe we could…”

He blushed before he was able to finish the sentence.

“I’d really love that…” Michelle winked, knowing what Jack was thinking about.

 

**MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016**

Two weeks later – Yet another mission…

“MAC! BEHIND YOU!” Jack called as he ducked a high roundhouse kick.

He didn’t really catch how it happened, but first man Mac was fighting ended up on the floor. Bleeding. Leaving Mac open to protect himself against dude number two.

Jack got a little sidetracked as he caught four knuckles to the diaphragm. Effectively knocking the air out of him.

He stumbled backward, but recovered quickly enough, answering the hit with a real haymaker of his own. His hand collapsed against the man’s skull, Jack remembered that feeling. The pain didn’t have to register, he already knew his hand would need to be looked at by a professional.

He followed the blow with a trademark head-butt knocking the other guy to the ground.

Jack offered a glimpse down at his hand, almost feeling sick to his stomach when he saw the weird form his hand had.

“Jack! Little help here!” Mac called out, he was held in a headlock by the guy Jack had warned him about a minute ago.

Jack nodded, moving in from the side. He tapped the guy on his shoulder, swinging his elbow around knocking the man out on the first attempt.

“Thanks man…” Mac coughed, as he rubbed his neck. “That guy had a good hold…”

“That’s good brother, but I’ve got another problem…” Jack gritted out, holding his hand up to show Mac. The pain was just starting to register.

“You broke your hand?”

Jack nodded, “Against that dude’s skull…”

“Shit, does it hurt?”

“It’s gonna…” Jack shrugged, “Just started to feel it…”

Mac frowned, reaching for Jack’s deformed hand. Jack pulled away.

“Don’t touch it!”

“Okay… I won’t…” Mac held his hands up. “But we should probably fix a splint for that. Before it starts hurting bad…”

Jack shrugged, looking down at his own hand, “Yeah, you’re probably right…”

Right as Mac was about to gather something to stabilize the obvious fracture in Jack’s hand, a loud resonant boom sounded from the far end of the building.

“Later Mac! Think we’re needed right now!” Jack growled as he hauled Mac after him with his left hand.

“Copy that!” Mac gasped, as he tried to put his feet down under him. Without stumbling too much.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack was first through the door, his feet catching in a tripwire sending him forward off the stairs on the high end.

Mac managed to stop himself before he fell off the stairs in the same way.

“SON OF A BITCH!” Jack cried out a floor further down.

“You good buddy?”

“NO!” Jack growled as Mac made his way down the flight of stairs.

“How’d you land?”

“Wrist first…” Jack winced as he rolled over to his left shoulder, protecting his right arm against his chest. “Go figure out what went kaboom… I’ll catch up!”

“You sure?”

“Yeah! Leave!” Jack gritted out, squeezing his eyes shut.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Mac returned ten minutes later. A sheen of sweat covering his face.

Jack had managed to move from the floor and over to a crate standing against the wall to the left. He still had his right arm pressed against his chest, pain written all over his face.

“Find something?”

Mac nodded, “A small device, more bark than bite… And two guys waiting…”

“Well, since you’re here I guess you took them out…?”

Mac nodded, “There was this shelf system along the wall… It had been weakened by the blast. Only took a good yank to make it come raining down on them…”

“That’s good kid…” Jack growled as he doubled over. “MAN! MY ARM HURTS!”

“Let me take a look at that…”

“Nuh-uh…” Jack shook his head, “Already know it’s broken…”

“Of course it’s broken…” Mac nodded, “But we should splint it. Make sure it doesn’t move more than it has to…”

Jack grimaced, but nodded.

“You want me to do that now?”

Jack nodded hesitantly.

“Man, the bones leading out to your index and middle finger looks messed up…” Mac mused as he eyed the swelling hand for a second. “Just wait here… -And try to get your belt off, I’m gonna need it…”

Jack nodded, as he started to fumble with his belt buckle with his left hand.

 

**MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016**

“Uncle Ni… UNCLE JAAAACK!!!” Thea and Ryan called out as Jack made his way up the driveway. Both the 4- and 5 year old started sprinting towards him. Pausing as they realized their uncle had one of his arms resting in a sling.

“You have ow-ow?” Ryan, the youngest asked as he pointed to his own arm.

Jack nodded.

“Uncle Jack broke his arm… But he still wants that hug you guys were about to give him!” Jack said as he knelt down to hug the two kids. “Where’s Matt?”

“In school…” Thea answered as she wrapped her arms around Jack’s neck. Hugging him. “He’s a big boy…”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, he’s eight now, isn’t he?”

Thea nodded as she stepped back, giving Ryan enough room to hug Jack.

“That he is…” Jack grinned, “And mom? Where is Rita?”

“In the ki-chen” Ryan answered.

“In the kitchen huh?” Jack nodded as he lifted Ryan on his good arm, “How about we go inside?”

The kids nodded, and Thea skipped ahead.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Hey sis…” Jack grinned as he stepped into the kitchen.

“Jackie!” Rita smiled as she turned around. “Oh, you’re h… Your arm…?”

Jack nodded, “Just a couple of fractures…”

“What did you do this time?” she asked planting her hands on her hips.

“Took a bad landing, that’s all…” Jack shrugged.

“You know I don’t believe that you’ve just turned into the world’s worst klutz of a stuntman… You’re doing something… I know it…” Rita smirked, pointing at Jack with the spatula she had in her hand.

“What are you talkin’ ‘bout?” Jack chuckled.

“You still have the same callouses as when you were in active duty…” Rita shrugged, “You still do the same stuff… Just a different organization.”

“Now why would I do that…?” Jack frowned, hoisting Ryan further up on his good arm.

“You’re an action junkie… Always have been…” Rita smirked, “Relax, no one else knows…”

“No one else knows, cause there is nothing to know…” Jack reasoned, “I double as a stuntman, you know…”

Stuntman had turned into Jack’s regular way of explaining all the odd injuries he sustained way too often. And he had used it as a cover story within his family too. That and being a part of LAPD.

“Right, when the police uniform feels a little too boring…” Rita rolled her eyes. “You might fool mom, Nick and our other sisters… But I don’t believe you…”

“Okay, believe what you want…”

“I will!” Rita winked.

Jack smirked and shook his head. He had to give it to Rita, she had the observer skills of a trained professional. If she hadn’t chosen to be a doctor, Jack would have tried to guide her into the same path he had taken himself.

“So, you’re staying for two days?”

Jack nodded. “Have to say hi to you guys, plus it’s been ages since I visited mom… I’ve been too busy lately, and I feel bad about it…”

“Busy saving the world…” Rita chimed in.

“Rizz, that’s not true…” Jack laughed, “Saving the streets of LA… Maybe…”

“Why only two days?” Rita finally asked, nodding towards the sling, “Looks like you’ve got more than two days off of work there…”

“I’ve got something to do up in Sealy…” Jack shrugged.

“Sealy? What in the world would make you take a trip to Sealy? It’s so small you could literally miss it if you blinked!” Rita frowned, “And it’s almost a five hour drive!”

Jack flashed her a big, bright grin.

“There’s a girl there? Isn’t there?”

“Lots of girls in Sealy I guess…” Jack teased.

“If you weren’t hurt already, I’d smack you!” Rita growled as she put the spatula down. “Is there a girl there? You know, one you take special interest in?”

Jack didn’t answer, just stood there with the biggest grin on his face and with his nephew on his arm.

“There is!” Rita beamed, “What’s her name? –And when can I meet her?”

“Her name is Michelle, and you do not tell this to anyone else. Not yet…”

Rita nodded, “Okay…”

“I could ask her to tag along the next time we have a family reunion. But I’d for her to know me a little better before that, can’t have the bunch of you scaring her away…” Jack winked, as he lowered Ryan to the floor.

“Us, scare her away?” Rita shook her head as she picked up the spatula again and started wiping the dough down from the edges of her baking bowl. “If she keeps up with you, we’re not gonna be a problem Whiskey…”

Jack chuckled at the old nickname, “Seriously, you still call me that…”

“Hey, you still call me Rizz…” Rita placed a hand on her hip.

“Okay, that’s true little sis…”

“So, why go here first? I assume you came straight from LA today…”

Jack nodded, “Didn’t feel like showing up there with a sling, thought I’d wait until I’m comfortable without it…”

“And you just expect it to get a whole lot better in two days? Since when did fractures get better after two days?”

“It’s been almost a week now, I’ve already thought about tossing this thing away…” Jack tugged lightly at the blue fabric of the sling.

“Okay then…” Rita shrugged, “Why don’t you want to show up at her place with that sling?”

“Cause I feel like a clown…” Jack rubbed the back of his neck, “And because it feels like bad manners to show up when you’re temporarily semi-helpless…”

“But it’s okay to show up at my place in the same condition…?”

Jack nodded, “Of course it is, you’re my sister… -And you did say that I had to take a trip as soon as I had the chance…”

“Okay, you win…” Rita chuckled. “-You win…”

 

**Okay, so… I did a little research. And turns out, Jack Dalton Sr. was 21 when our Jack was born… So… The lineup of the Dalton siblings have changed a bit in this story compared to my Whiskey story. (In Whiskey, Jack and Nick have four older sisters and one younger. Here it’s opposite, one older, four younger…)**

**Okay?**

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

**This time I feel the need to add a little dictionary input:**

_OTC – Operator Training Course_

**Okay, now… Let’s get going!**

 

The next morning, Jack was woken by three niblings running inside his room at a quarter to eight.

“Uncle Jack! Wake up! Wake up-wake up-wake up!” they sang as they jumped up and down on the floor beside his bed.

Jack turned his head to the side, and rubbed sleep out of his eyes with his good hand. “Alright, I’m awake…”

“Good uncle!” Thea beamed, “Mom is making breakfast! Dad’s watching the news…”

Jack nodded. “I’ll be right down, just need to get dressed first…”

He knew all his siblings had seen most of his scars. And he knew they could take seeing the new ones too, but he wanted to avoid mentally scarring his nieces and nephews as far as it was possible. At least the youngest ones.

“Can you three go ask mom if she has coffee ready?”

Rita’s three children sprinted out of his room, and down the hallway. Jack hurried to get up and get dressed. He had just put on his t-shirt and was about to put on his sling as the three kids returned to his room.

“Why do you wear that thing uncle?” Matt, the oldest asked.

“Because I broke my arm, and I need to keep it still.”

“But you only have cast up to here…” Matt observed and pointed near his own elbow.

“Yeah, that’s because it’s my wrist and hand that is broken…” Jack nodded, “But it’s still very fresh, and it starts throbbing if I just walk around with my hand down…”

Matt nodded. “Breaking things hurt…”

Jack couldn’t agree more. “You broke your arm a few months back, didn’t you?”

Matt nodded, “I went over the handlebar of my bike…”

“That’s not what Rita told me…” Jack chuckled.

“Okay, I jumped with my bike. Then I went over the handlebar…”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. As far as he knew, Matt was a blond copy of himself. Same wild and rambunctious demeanor, but protective as hell of everyone he cared for.

“Was it a big jump?”

Matt shook his head, “I would only have jumped 4 feet long if I landed…”

“Now, a four foot jump on a bike can be long enough…” Jack shrugged. His own record was far further, but he had been a little older than Matt was now.

“-But I’ve made an eight foot jump!” Matt looked up, “Landed it too!”

Then he looked at his siblings, “And you don’t tell that to mom or dad!”

Thea and Ryan nodded obediently.  

Jack laughed. _Yep… Matt was a blond version of himself at 8-years old. Rita and Mark sure had their work cut out for them…_

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Sis, this tastes wonderful…” Jack as he picked up another piece of pancake with his fork.

“It’s only pancakes, not much that could go wrong with the recipe…” Rita shrugged.

“But you make the best pancakes, like… Ever…” Jack smirked, “Always have…”

“Well, I know it’s your favorite. So I figured you might want some for breakfast…” Rita smiled.

“Thank you!”

“So, any plans for today?” Mark asked, smiling over at his brother-in-law, if not he’d be happy to spend the evening watching sports on the television with him.

“Thought I should visit mom, and maybe Tessa, or Christine…” Jack shrugged, “It’s sure been a long time since I did that last…”

“I could make a couple of calls, see how many we can get to visit mom today…” Rita shrugged, “That way most of us could get together all at once…”

“That’s not a bad idea…” Jack admitted, “Let’s do that…”

 

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

 

“Jack!” his mother, Caroline, grinned as she hurried down the stairs. The woman was still fit and fast in her steps. “I haven’t seen you in forever kid…”

“You’re quick to assume it’s me…” Jack chuckled, “I could have been Nick…”

“Nonsense…” Caroline shook her head, “You still look like you do sports, often, and if one of my seven kids shows up here with a cast, or with crutches. There is a 95 percent chance it’s YOU!”

“Taking all my sisters into that count too?”

“Of course I am!” the 69 year old answered with a light slap on Jack’s good shoulder. “So, what have you been up to now?”

“Oh, this?” Jack nodded to his arm, “Was doing stunt work for a new movie, landed odd.”

“And you managed to break two fingers?” Caroline raised her eyebrows in suspicion.

“Two metacarpals… Yeah…” Jack nodded, “And my wrist…”

“I thought you usually broke metacarpals by punching…” his mom looked at him with the same laser-like stare she used to get him to spill the truth when he was younger.

“Well, that’s usually how it’s done…” Jack admitted, “But I was falling, and about to catch myself with my hand, but my hand was balled up in a fist and I hit the concrete knuckles frist. My wrist just collapsed…”

“Not your most believable story, son…” Caroline sighed, “But then again, it’s you…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jack frowned.

“Oh, falling off your bike at stand-still… -Breaking your elbow. Crashing your motorcycle against a Mack-truck, walking away from it just missing some skin on your right knee… -And that was less than 18 months after your shoulder had been turned into Swiss cheese back in Kuwait or Afghanistan or wherever! Your motorcycle was totaled in the crash…”

Jack nodded, “Okay, sometimes I’m unlucky, sometimes I’ve got luck shoved up my rear… I get it…”

Caroline nodded, “Well, come on in… Let’s get some food in you, you’re way too skinny!”

Jack just shook his head. After his mom had become a grandma, she had turned into her own mom. The kind of grandma that would feed you until you practically rolled out of the kitchen afterwards, and would say that you’d gotten too skinny if she hadn’t seen you in a couple of months. But he followed her up the stairs.

“Missy, Mary, Christine, Rita and Tessa are coming over later…” Caroline smiled, “They didn’t tell me why, but now I get it!”

“Yeah… Did they say if they were bringing the kids too?”

“Mary and Tessa will, don’t know about the others…” his mom shrugged, “Tessa’s little baby-girl is just the cutest little angel ever!”

“Oh, yeah. How old is she now?”

“Five months! And she’s so awake, she always smiling and flirting with us!” Caroline grinned with stars in her eyes, “Just wait until you see her! She’ll totally steal your heart!”

Jack smiled and sat down at his old spot around the kitchen table. His mom had already started to set over some coffee.

“I bet she will…”

Caroline walked over to the fridge, taking out some homemade lemonade. Then she found a glass and a cup for each of them. “And Nick has finally found himself a girlfriend, they got engaged about a month ago…”

Jack nodded, he suddenly felt a bit bad for not keeping tabs on all of his siblings. Especially his twin who only lived a couple of hours away. “He did? What’s her name?”

“Anna, cute girl. Maybe a little bit wilder than your brother…”

“Well, Nick’s never been really wild…” Jack reasoned.

“No, but she’s more what I’d expect from you… Not him…” Caroline shrugged, “But they are cute together. And they look to be good for each other too…”

Jack nodded.

“And you, Whiskey?” Caroline asked as she poured up a glass of lemonade for him. “What’s happening in your world…”

“Oh, same old… Lots of work…” Jack shrugged.

“Any girls stealing your heart?” his mom inquired, taking a sip of lemonade from her own glass.

Jack blushed, and instantly knew there was no way of wiggling past that question now.

“What’s her name?”

“-Michelle.” Jack answered and looked away, willing the redness to leave his cheeks.

“Is she the kind you end up with, or just a couple of months worth of fun?” there were no judgement in her tone as she asked. Just curiosity. Caroline knew her son.  

“I hope this one will last…” Jack smiled, “She’s… She’s perfect.”

“And is this a new thing? Or has it lasted some time?”

Jack shrugged, “Since the start of June, but she lives here in Texas… So we’ve been keeping in touch by phone mostly…”

“About three months then…” his mom calculated. It was September 8th now. “Keeping in touch by phone, that sounds boring…”

“Well, you and dad kept in touch by letters when he was in ‘Nam… And we skype too…”

Caroline nodded, “Okay, you’re right… But do you plan on moving back here?”

Jack shrugged, “We’ll see…”

“Well, we’d all like that…”

“She lives up in Sealy, it’s a bit of a drive…”

“But you’d be in Texas…” Caroline winked, I could actually jump in the car and visit you for the weekend!”

Jack smiled, “We’ll figure it out, but there’s no need to rush it…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It was fun to meet most of his family again, a little tiring, but mostly fun.

All of his sisters had brought their kids with them, even the ones who were grown up (as far as they were still in the area). Nick was the only one of his siblings who couldn’t come, but he was back in San Diego.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Thomas, one of his oldest nephews, sat next to Jack. He was busy showing him pictures he had taken at the base he had been stationed at the last twelve months. The kid was home on leave, and would return in about a month.

“I can remember you were in the military…” Thomas sat back, a smug smirk unfolding on his face “I’m not sure I remember what you said you did…”

“Of course you would remember me being in the military, I didn’t leave until late in 2011…”

“Yeah, I know… I was just trying to start a conversation…” Thomas smirked, “All my childhood I remember you, suddenly showing up out of nowhere, then suddenly have to leave again a couple of weeks or months later… It was always awesome when you were around. You always taught me cool tricks… And it always sucked when you had to leave, but mom told me you had a real important job…”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, I liked the action… Never was good at staying home. But leaving always sucked for me too…”

Thomas nodded understandingly.

“How old are you now, Tommy?”

“26…”

Jack nodded, “And when did you enlist?”

“At 20, mom didn’t let me until then…”

Jack smirked, “Yeah, sounds like Mary…”

“But what did you do in the army?” Thomas asked, already knowing the answer.

“Oh, I was a delta force operator…” Jack admitted.

Thomas brought his phone up again, found a picture and zoomed in. “Does this look familiar?”

The picture was of Thomas in his service uniform. Most likely at the graduation from OTC

“Wait, you’re Delta?” Jack recognized the familiar emblem Thomas wore on his uniform.

“Yeah, when I enlisted, mom told me you used to be a Delta operator.” Thomas shrugged, before he continued with a wink “And I’ve always wanted to be just like my uncle you know…”

Jack grinned proudly, he could remember his second oldest nibling always mimicking him whenever he was around. 

“I just have to ask, do you happen to know a guy named Cooper Lea, or Duncan Moore?”

Thomas shook his head, “No… Why?”

“Nothing, it just would have been awesome if you accidentally had been placed with my old outfit…” Jack shrugged.

“I’ll keep eyes and ears open, if I meet them I’ll let them know you’re my uncle…”

“Shit, now I’ve got to call and order them not to tell any embarrassing stories about me, if you ever happen to meet them…”

“Oh, I’ll make sure to have a bottle of something good at hand at all times. Information can be bought you know…” Thomas teased with a huge grin.

“You wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I certainly would!” Thomas laughed, “Especially now!”

Jack shook his head as he chuckled, “Well, that’s it… My reputation is screwed…”

“It already is, the ‘adults’ still talk about all the weird shit you pulled growing up. After hearing some of it, I’m amazed you’re not resting underneath the soil already…” Thomas shrugged, no longer with a playful tone to his voice. “You make all of us young ones look like choir boys, and girls… -Maybe except Matt…”

Jack ran a hand down his face, “They still keep that up?”

“Whenever they run out of other things to talk about, yes…” Thomas chuckled, “If I got to know a few of your old Delta buddies, we could finally get some new stories to talk about…”

Jack grimaced, “Well, some of those stories don’t belong amongst family, because of somewhat bad taste… Others are classified… But good luck!”

**I couldn’t help myself, I had to insert more of Jack’s family into this fic…**

**I’m incredibly good at getting sidetracked… (If you haven’t noticed that before…)**  
  



	26. Chapter 26

**So today’s chapter turned out to be a shorty, but hopefully a goodie…**

**Okay, I know you’ve been waiting for this. I’ve been stalling… I know that… [insert evil laughter here]**

The next day, after a very long drive Jack stood outside of her door, a bouquet held behind his back with his left hand. His right hand just held behind his back.

He had called Rory earlier that day, to find out where he would find Michelle when he arrived in town. Rory was easy to trust, and Jack knew his surprise visit would be just that… A surprise.

He tapped his boot against the door and waited. He could hear her calling out from inside, letting him know she was on her way to open the door.

“Yeah?” she asked before the door was fully open. Then she saw it was him and her face broke in to a huge grin. “JACK!”

“Hey sugar…” Jack smiled as he pulled out the bouquet, “I brought flowers…”

She barely glanced at the flowers before she wrapped her hands behind his neck, gently pulling him down to her level for a long overdue kiss. While the kiss lasted, Jack placed the flowers on the table standing just within his reach inside the hallway. Then he lifted her, using his left hand and right elbow under her arms. She instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist.

“I’ve missed you…” she whispered as she pulled away from the kiss to look at him.

Jack started to say the same thing back to her, but was muffled by her lips coming back on to his for another kiss. He smiled and walked them inside. Turned right, and pinned her up against the wall – freeing his good hand and letting it rest at her waist. His right arm was in an L-shape up against the wall.

They spent a good five minutes like that, before Jack let her back down on the floor.

He cupped her face with his left hand and placed a final kiss on her lips before he straightened back up a bit.  

“How’ve you been?” he asked breathlessly, his forehead pressed against hers. Brown eyes locked on green ones. Green ones that made him think of a field of clover.

“Good…” she smiled, “And you?”

“I’m good…” Jack grinned, “-Great now that I’m back here with you…”

Michelle leaned in and kissed his neck, before she stepped back, looking him over.

“What happened to your arm?” she asked, gently lifting his cast-covered arm into both of their view.

“Nothin’…”

“Come on, Jack…”

“Okay… I punched a dude, and then I sort of landed on my hand later that mission…”

“Well, is it bad?”

“Nah… It’ll heal…” Jack shrugged, “And it’s nothing like the leg, if that’s what you’re asking…”

“Well, the dude probably had it coming…”

Jack nodded. “His record showed just about everything… You know, way more than stealing old ladies’ handbags, robbing a K-mart or two, even more than killing a few pets. Real scum, waste of air –really…”

Michelle frowned, “But you got him?”

Jack nodded, “He’s locked up, and won’t see anything outside a prison yard for the rest of his earthly life…”

“Good…” Michelle nodded, then she glanced down at Jack’s legs. “How is the leg, by the way…?”

“Good, back to how it should be…” Jack grinned.

Michelle smiled, hugging Jack’s chest. “That’s good to hear…”

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**  
**


	27. Chapter 27

**Hello again! I’m BAAACK!**

 

The next morning they didn’t make it out of bed before three in the afternoon. –And not because Michelle had been working at the bar the night before. No, they just didn’t leave the bed.

“Maybe we should take a shower…” Michelle winked as she pushed herself up to kiss Jack on his cheek. They had both sweated a fair share since they made it to bed the night before. Then she settled back to her resting spot by Jack’s left shoulder. Jack nodded, but neither of them made a move to get up.  

She let her forefinger trace the length of the scar near his right shoulder. The person who had stitched it up hadn’t done the best job ever. The width was varying and some places the scar was hard instead of soft and smooth.

“Got that one when I was 35, or 36… Was about a year after 9/11…” Jack murmured as he looked at the scar Michelle had her fingers running over. He knew she wanted to know the story behind it.

She nodded against his other shoulder.

“Was standing a little too close when an IED exploded, a sheet of metal came flying at me and it went in…” Jack frowned as he remembered looking towards his right arm and just seeing a jagged (roughtly 10x6 inch) plate blocking his view. Of course it had embedded itself in his shoulder with the widest side. “My collarbone snapped, and the doctors who fixed me back up had a real struggle finding the end of some of the tendons that had been cut off…”

“But you don’t struggle with it?” it was just between a question and a statement.

“Miraculously, no…” Jack chuckled, “They said a whole bunch of things when I first started rehab. Like… I’d never regain full strength, or -I’d get a stiff shoulder. That I wouldn’t be able to raise my arm above chest height… All that stuff…”

“Well, you actually lifted me a couple of times yesterday, putting most of my weight on that shoulder because of your hand and you had to raise your arm above chest level to do so…” Michelle thought back, “I haven’t seen you being careful of it or anything…”

Jack nodded, “The doctors were wrong, It took almost a year before I was able to make it back to my old squad. And it was difficult to convince my superiors that I was good enough for what was expected of my team, but after a couple of weeks they understood that my shoulder was just as good as it needed to be… -I actually had my doubts until one incident there…”

“Yeah?”

“We had rigged, -let’s call it a zip line cause that was what it really was. Charlie went down first. Then Cooper. Duncan. Boxer… They all went down it without a hitch. I was next in line, and Pete would take the last ‘flight’.” Jack shook his head thinking back, “Halfway between the two peaks, the thing we clicked on the wire jammed on me.”

“So you were stuck?”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, I tried swinging back and forth to loosen it, but it wouldn’t budge. End of the story, I had to go hand over hand up the rope to reach the trolley. Then I had to hold myself up there with one elbow and click the trolley off the wire and poke around in it with my knife to get it to move again.”

“And it worked after that?”

“Yeah, there was a small pebble lodged against one of the wheels.” Jack nodded, “Anyway, that took a lot of upper body strength, and really tested my shoulder. After that I didn’t really doubt my shoulder…”

Michelle traced the scar another time.

Jack pulled Michelle a little closer, and rolled over to his side, facing her. He placed his casted right hand on her left hip, gently brushing his two free fingers against her.

She wrapped her left leg around his waist, pulling their hips closer.

Jack let out a soft chuckle and rolled over further, putting his weight on his elbows as he kissed her. She wrapped her legs behind his back.

“Again?” he whispered, a smile on his lips.

Micelle kissed him and nodded, “Unless you have other plans…”

“Nope!” Jack was quick to answer, “I definitely have no other plans for the day!”

“You need help with…” Michelle bit her lip and pointed towards the nightstand where she had the condoms.

Jack nodded and sat up on his knees, holding up his casted arm and hand, “Yeah, this one is kinda useless…”  

Michelle sat up and stretched out to find another condom. Jack crawled up next to her.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck, her collarbone, her chest… She twisted under him. Her hands pulling on his back, her nails making red streaks down the backside of his shoulders. Her legs were hooked around the back of his thighs working in time with his thrusts.

In one quick move, Michelle managed to twist the both of them around, leaving her on top.

“Whoa… How’d you…?” Jack almost gasped staring up at her. He was amazed that such a small person, compared to himself, could pull that off.

She flashed smile, leaning over him to whisper in his ear. “I forgot to tell you I used to do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, didn’t I?”

Jack nodded, his heart actually kicking it up a speed. Somehow this little piece of information made her even more thrilling to him.

He let his good hand travel up and down her side as she rode him, after a little while he moved his hand to guide her hips. It was building. And building. And building…

Michelle was arching her back, Jack’s toes were curling. She was moaning, his breath was hitching. All of his muscles tightened on themselves, his mind went blank and a warm soothing feeling settled in on him. He could feel Michelle leaning down, kissing him. He kissed back clumsily.

She climbed off him, and he rolled to his side to wrap her in a hug. They were both slick with sweat, both fighting for air.

“Wow…” he breathed.

“Wow…” she agreed.

They laid in each others arms for a little while, catching their breath and cooling off.

“Let’s go take a shower…” Michelle finally whispered after a few minutes, “I’m getting hungry…”

Jack had to admit both a shower and some late breakfast sounded like good ideas. “Think we definitely have deserved both…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle grinned as she helped Jack soap up his short hair with her shampoo. “You’re gonna smell like roses now…”

Jack laughed, “Maybe I should buy a bottle of shampoo next time I get the chance…”

Michelle nodded as she started to lather her own hair. “We should probably do that…”

**Okay… That was nerve-wrecking to write.**

**Like, at work I can joke about that kind of stuff without even blushing. (I mean, I think I have a black-belt in guy talk… If I really want, I can make most of my colleagues blush.) But writing this chapter? Trying to make things sound sweet and cuddly and BOOM! How do you write stuff like this without making it either flat, perverted or boring? -HALP!?**

**I’m gonna go hide under my bed now… Bye…**


	28. Chapter 28

**Well, thank you for all the comments! I made it out from underneath my bed eventually. –it was scary…**

 

Jack grinned as he tried to fry some eggs using his left hand to handle the spatula. Well, the eggs were meant to be easy-over… They ended up scrambled.

“Well, this is turning into a disaster…” Jack informed over his shoulder.

Michelle walked over from where she was cutting up bread, she looked around Jack’s shoulder and studied the contents in the frying pan.

“No, that looks just fine…” Michelle answered with a kiss on Jack’s right upper arm.

“This is a little easier when you do it with your dominant hand…” Jack admitted, holding up the spatula.

“I figured so…” Michelle nodded, “Lucky for you, this isn’t a cooking contest…”

“Says the woman who only has HOMEMADE BREAD…” Jack turned around with raised brows, “Honestly, I’ve missed that bread almost as much as I’ve missed you and your other cooking skills…”

Michelle laughed.

“I mean it, I could probably get performance anxiety if you told me to boil water. But you’re setting me to fry eggs?” Jack chuckled, “You sure know how to push a man to his limits…”

“-Are you talking about tonight? Or about culinary skills now?”

“Kitchen… Think I could have made it through a couple more rounds, just need a little time to rest up in between…”

“Well, I was pushing _my_ limit…” Michelle admitted, blushing ever so slightly. “But I sure want to do that more often…”

“Me too…” Jack winked, before returning his attention to the scrambled eggs. “I think these are done now…”

He turned the plate off and lifted the pan over to another plate. Then he opened the drawer where he knew he would find a trivet. He took hold of the trivet with the ring- and pinky finger of his right hand. The only two fingers not immobilized by the cast. And the pan with the eggs in his left hand.

Michelle placed the basket of sliced bread on the table and found a couple of glasses for them to drink from.

“Still want milk for breakfast?” she asked as she opened the refrigerator door.

“Yes please…” Jack grinned as he sat down.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

As soon as they entered the gas station in look of a shampoo for Jack, they could as well look for it on their way over to her parents house, Michelle met Tina who usually worked at the grocery store. Tina was about 45, but still one of the people Michelle spent most time with outside of work.

Michelle stayed with her as Jack walked further into the gas-mart in hope of finding shampoo on a Sunday. (And they needed more milk too…)

“And who might that guy be?” Tina asked, bumping her hip into Michelle’s.

“That’s Jack…” Michelle blushed.

“Jack as in…?” Tina let her eyebrows bounce up and down to hint towards what she was thinking.

Michelle smiled, “Jack as in the guy who lived with me for a couple of weeks early this summer, and I probably haven’t shut up about since…”

“You have talked about him a lot…” Tina agreed as she craned her neck to check out Jack’s physique. “-And I see why…”

Michelle countered with a playful shove, and giggled a bit. “That’s not the reason why he’s on my mind pretty much all the time…”

“It is one reason…” Tina pressed, “Has to be…”

“Okay, but not the only one, okay?”

Tina laughed a bit, then nodded before turning serious. “He’s good to you too?”

Michelle sobered up, and nodded.

“Because I know guys who suddenly show up with casts can be a bit of trouble…” there were no longer a teasing or playful tone in Tina’s voice, “You tell me if he ever does you wrong, deal? And then you get the hell out of there…”

Michelle looked at the floor, she knew exactly what Tina was thinking about, Tina’s first husband had been liked by the whole town… But behind closed doors…

The man had at times landed himself in casts, because he had been beating Tina up.

“Yes, Tina…” Michelle nodded, “I promise…”

“Good girl!” the playful tone was back again in an instant, “But let’s hope my over-active brain is wrong as usual… I bet it is…”

“Yeah, I think so…” Michelle smiled softly.

“Hey, while I still remember… I’m having a BBQ-grill party tomorrow, around 5 p.m. Come if you can, and bring that new eye candy of yours along…” Tina winked, “I bet most of us would like to get to know the infamous Jack Dalton a bit better, seeing as he’s got our girl all blushing and grinning…”

“We’ll see, I’m still not sure if Danny can work tomorrow night.”

“I’ll see you if you show up…”

Michelle nodded, “It’s BYOB, right?”

Tina nodded, “Yeah, easier that way. People have different tastes and all that…”

“Okay…” Michelle nodded. “Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow!”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Well, look at that…” Rory chuckled as he opened the door, looking Jack over. “We’ve been waiting for you to show back up again! Come on in! Lorraine’s cooking up some dinner, hope you guys are hungry…”

“Yeah, sure we are!” Michelle answered with a wink towards Jack, it wasn’t all that long since they’d eaten breakfast. But she had realized by now that Jack could almost always eat whatever was put in front of him. –And her mom’s home cooked meals would be no match to him.

Jack nodded along with her as they stepped inside.

“How does the hand feel by the way? You mentioned it when you called yesterday…” Rory asked as he nodded towards the thick cast.

“Well, good enough…” Jack shrugged, “Doesn’t really bother me all too much…”

“That’s good to hear, son…” Rory smiled, “And good to see that you’re not even limping either.”

“Yeah, that was a few notches worse than this thing…” Jack laughed as he held up his hand, “At least felt worse… But it helped as soon as they removed that screw that was bothering me, turned out it was pressing on a nerve…”

Rory frowned as he imagined what that had to feel like, “Well, let’s hope you won’t get hurt again for a while… But that’s not really likely when you’re a stuntman, now is it?”

Jack chuckled, Michelle knew his secret, but the rest of her family had been told the same lie as his family.

“No, you’re bound to shed some blood and end up with a couple of scars…” Jack admitted.

**Okay, so… I’m torn between how I want the next chapter to play out. On one hand I want to skip forward just a couple of hours… But on the other hand I want to make a scene with Jack and Michelle’s family. And I haven’t quite decided what to do about the BBQ the next day either… (That would be a direct result of what happens from now until then… Pretty much…)  
Guess I’ll figure that out after I’ve started to write it…**

**Also, anyone liked the glimpse of domestic Jack? Just another one of those little things I needed in my life…**


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay… So I managed to write another chapter… Hope it feels good.
> 
> -On this one and possibly the next chapter, I think I should warn you. It may be triggering for some people. In the story it is NOW September 10th and the NEXT CHAPTER will probably be September 11th…  
> -I don’t have to tell you what will be going on in these chapters then, do I?
> 
> Read at own risk, I guess…

 

It was good, he felt like he belonged. Felt like family already. This was another home for him, he was accepted and he liked them. All of them. (Well, all those he had met until now. He still hadn’t met Danny, but he figured he had to be a good guy too.)

Conversation went easy and everybody were having a good time.

They ate, they talked… They ended up drinking coffee and eating cake by the living room table.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Oh, the 8 o’clock news has started…” Rory noted as he glanced up at the clock on the wall.

Lorraine clicked the button on the remote and the television started up.

“It’s September 10th and tomorrow marks the 16th anniversary of the tragic events that took place during 9/11.” The reporter informed as an old video of American Airlines flight 11 crashing in to the northern tower played in the background. “It was early in the morning, Tuesday September 11th when a plane crashed into the first World Trade Center, people were just coming in to work. Just a little over 15 minutes later, the south tower was hit by another plane. Nearly 3000 people lost their lives that day”

Rory was the only one who saw how Jack suddenly paled and tensed up instantly at the sight on the TV.  

“I’ve got to get some air…” Jack uttered barely above a whisper as he got up and quickly headed for the front porch.

_MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016_

The sound of the plane coming in low. The way the ground trembled beneath them as they stood looking up at the unbelievable sight in front of them. A freaking plane just crashed into one of the twin towers. Jack and Charlie and every other person out in the streets of New York stood staring up at the smoke billowing out from the north tower at 08:46 in the morning. They were all equally stunned, stuff like this just don’t happen.

“Holy shiiit!!!” Charlie gasped, he’s the first one to recover enough to say anything.

“Crap!” Jack called out a second or two later, before he taps Charlie on the shoulder much harder than he actually intended, “Dude, we’ve got to go! We’ve got to help!”

Charlie nodded as they took off running towards the towers.

_MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016_

Jack slid down along the wall outside the door, just beside the rail of the porch. He tried to fight off the images of the flaming towers, the falling bodies and all the injured and dead he saw later. His hands were shaking, it was hard to breathe.

_MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016_

They reached the area outside the towers, people from the lower floors had started pouring out onto the street. Some were leaving the tower that hadn’t been hit too. Smart thing to do.

“What’s the plan Jack?”

“Help.” Jack answered, looking up at the inferno. “Anyway which we can…”

Charlie nodded, their relaxing little R&R had just been cut short.

“Yesterday, did you notice easiest way to guide large masses of people away from here?” Jack asked.

“Quickest would be down there…”

“Up west street?” Jack asked, Charlie nodded. “I thought the same…”

“But there’s going to be too many people…” Charlie sighed, “Best we can do is just to get them away from the building all together. Make sure they don’t stop and block the way for the next one in line…”

“You’re probably right about that Charlie…” Jack nodded frowning up at the now burning building.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Michelle found Jack sitting on the corner of her parents porch, hyperventilating and covering his head with his arms.

“Jack…” she whispered, she didn’t want to startle him. “Jack?”

He didn’t answer, just kept on hyperventilating and cover his neck and head with his arms.

“Jack?”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

The first one was mind blowing. He couldn’t believe his own eyes as the first body plunged towards the ground. Couldn’t believe that he had just witnessed someone ending their own life.

Through the layer of smoke and straight down to the concrete below. He just couldn’t believe it.

“Don’t look at it Charlie!” he called out, but Charlie was also staring up at the horrific sight, exactly as stunned as Jack felt.

“Poor souls…” the blond Californian swallowed, “They’re trapped up there Jack…”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“COVER!” Charlie’s voice boomed from his left, and pure instincts had Jack diving for the closest piece of sturdy mass.

They both made it behind a concrete wall just as a second plane crashed into the other tower.

“Shit man! This is bad!” Charlie cried out, as various debris rained down all around them.

“YOU HAVEN’T FIGURED THAT OUT ALREADY?!” Jack screamed back.

“OF COURSE I’VE FIGURED IT OUT! I JUST DIDN’T WANT TO SAY IT!” Charlie called out.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“Jack? Honey…” she tried again, kneeling down a few yards away. “Can you hear me?”

She wasn’t quite sure if he nodded or not.

“Can you hear me?” she repeated.

That was definitely a nod.

“Is it okay if I touch you?”

He shook his head, “Not yet…”

His voice was trembling just like his hands.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

“The two of us, we are Delta Force Operators…” Charlie informed both the police and fireman in charge. “Please let us help you.”

Both the policeman and the firefighter had tried to usher them away, tried to get them to go to safety.

“It would be a lot safer for you to head away, like the rest of the people here.”

“We want to help. Okay!” Jack almost sneered, “I get that you can’t let us follow you up the buildings or anything, but let us stay here. Let us help with the wounded or something. We’re both more than aqueduct with first aid!”

“He means adequate…” Charlie quickly corrected, he was amazed that someone who were fluent in as many languages as Jack still struggled with his mother tongue. In his mind he would chalk it up to some sort of dyslexia, he was pretty sure the Texan had it.

The two officials shared a look.

“Okay, but don’t get too close to the buildings. We don’t know how much damage there is… The structural integrity cold have been damaged. It could come down as a house of cards…” the man in charge of the firemen informed.

 “We’ll keep a safe distance…” Charlie answered, knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth.

The two uniform wearing men nodded.

“Okay, we’ll let you stay. Just put on these vests…” the policeman sighed, pulling out two reflective vests from the closest police car. “Then we’ll know it’s you, and we won’t guide you away…”

Jack and Charlie nodded, putting on the vests.

“Okay, see you guys later…” Jack nodded to the police and firefighter before he turned.

“We’ve done crazier stuff than this…” Charlie whispered under his breath looking over at Jack.  

“Can’t exactly remember when or what, but…” Jack shrugged, “And you know I’m going as close as possible, right?”

Charlie nodded, “Of course I knew that! I was lying so they would let us stay!”

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

Jack looked up tears streaming from his eyes.

“Was it the news?” Michelle asked calmly.

Jack nodded.

“You were there that day?”

“Me and Charlie…” Jack nodded again, “The guy that…”

Jack made a pistol shape out of his left hand and held it to his mouth, “Poof…”

Michelle felt tears stinging in her eyes.

Jack wiped away a few tears with his sleeve, “We were on R&R, thought we’d see NYC…”

Michelle nodded, but didn’t interrupt.

“We flew in on the Friday, 7th…” Jack cleared his voice in a hope that it wouldn’t crumble even more. The weekend we spent drinking, eating at a few places we’d heard of. Charlie, you wouldn’t believe the things he could eat.”

“That’s coming from you?” Michelle half-joked, earning herself a brief laugh from Jack.

“Yeah, that’s coming from me…” Jack sniffled, “On Monday we…”

Jack fell silent.

“On the Monday you?”

“We went up the south tower. We climbed it, the stairs… All 110 floors of it. Early in the morning. Reached the top about five minutes to nine…” Jack answered as he started to shake all over again. “One day later… And…”

Michelle said nothing.

“On the Tuesday we were planning to see the Empire State Building and some other stuff.” Jack squeezed his good hand as hard as he could, trying to stay in control, his knuckles cracked “We were only 300 yards away when the…”

Jack let his good hand glide through the air like a plane, before mimicking it crashing into a building.

“Oh…” Michelle said, frantically searching her brain for ways she could help Jack. But she came up empty.

“As any other operator would do, we ran towards it. After we realized what we had just seen…” Jack swallowed hard. “I think that’s one of the events that has messed me up the most…”

He broke out in silent tears again.

“Right now I want to hug you, cause that’s really the only kind of comfort I can offer…” Michelle whispered, looking at the older man. “Would that be okay?”

Jack pulled his shoulders up in a shrug.

“Not yet…?” she asked.

Jack nodded.

The door to the hall opened, but Michelle waved her father away. He nodded and closed the door again.

Jack pulled a deep breath, “We helped out. Almost got hit by jumping people, falling debris and airplane parts… Almost got trapped when the towers started falling too…”

Michelle kept her silence.

“After the dust had settled and all, we helped NYFD search for survivors.” Jack bit out, “I remember stepping in goo… -It wasn’t goo…”

Michelle shuddered as she involuntarily pictured a younger Jack Dalton stepping in what she imagined had to be a squished person.

“Neither of us slept okay for weeks after that…” Jack admitted, “Then we shipped out to Afghanistan…”

He pulled a deep breath, and let go of it slow and steady. His voice cold and controlled as he went on, “Tomorrow’s 16 years since the twin towers. But there is another horrible anniversary there too… Tomorrow makes 11 years since Charlie…”

His voice broke completely at the mention of Charlie, and Michelle’s heart broke with it.

She was relieved to see his guard come down and his arms spread wide, the universal sign for ‘please hug me’. She crawled in closer, one knee on each side of his legs. He wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her shoulder as the floodgates opened completely. She let her right hand run over his hair, her left hand was rubbing circles on his back.

MACGYVER2016MACGYVER2016

It took a full hour before Jack was able to quiet down again. Michelle’s top had a big wet spot from where Jack had held his head, and she was about emptied out of tears herself too.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered, finally wiping tears and snot away one last time. “I’m sorry you had to see that…”

“Don’t be…” Michelle murmured, wiping away some tears of her own, “If I get you for the good times, then I’m in for the bad ones too…”

Then she bent down and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

Jack let out a shaky mess, “Great, now your family must think I’m a hot mess…”

Michelle shook her head.

“I don’t think they will…” she whispered. “They’ll just know you’ve been through some stuff…”

Jack didn’t respond.

“You want to go back in? I think there’s more cake left…” Michelle asked as she brushed a couple of fingers against his jaw.

“Could we just sit here for a few more minutes?” Jack asked softly.

“Of course… We’ll sit here for a little while longer…”

 

 

**  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay… So…  
> Hope I didn’t offend anyone with this… If I did, that certainly wasn’t my intention...


End file.
